Summary List PlacementSingle-family homes have become the hot real-estate play of the pandemic, with major Wall Street firms, corporate investors, and institutions like pension funds pouring billions of dollars into buying suburban houses across the country and renting them out for healthy profits. As Americans migrated away from cities during the depths of the crisis and gained an appreciation for the added space and suburban surroundings of single-family properties, those homes' value has skyrocketed.