Politicians blame big companies like Blackstone, Invitation Homes and JPMorgan because they’ve been buying thousands of homes. He points out that those big investors don’t buy homes and take them off the market. Big investors often buy rundown properties most of us stay away from and then spend more than other buyers do, renovating. I don’t know how to calculate the permitting cost, but getting permission took longer than it took to build the house. Dallas politicians tried to improve its permit process by putting all housing bureaucrats in one building.