Featuring this truly telling map by @HarshaReports

One thing our analysis can't tell us: How many *apartment units* are owned by investors (unlike condos, these are treated as a single property in the data). These likely have a much higher investor-own rate, mostly bc mom-and-pops, by definition, don't build six-story buildings.

On a basic level, this makes sense! For $1M, an investor could buy one condo in SF or three in Atlanta. More units = less risk. That said, investors *are* buying more homes in SF, according to Redfin. But its definition includes family trusts, which are v common here.

(I should note here that our analysis is a very rough estimate. The data doesn't tell you whether the property is a home, so we had to make some assumptions based on zoning and the property owner name. Most analyses out there have similar limitations.)

But our analysis found that throughout the Bay Area, the share of homes owned by companies (LLCs, corps, etc.) were much lower — <10% in most ZIP codes. The main exceptions? Two ZIP codes in Fremont, where a company connected with the city's co-founder owns thousands of homes.

You often hear (or I do, at least) that investors are buying up tons of real estate. There is some truth to that. A 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that a quarter of single-family rentals in Atlanta were owned by big investors.

ICYMI: With the help of the indomitable @emma_stiefel, I analyzed property ownership data to try to answer a question that's come up a lot in my reporting: How much of the Bay Area's housing is owned by investors? The short answer: Not much (we think). https://t.co/snwkKTbtSa

As we've reported previously, the surge in arrests/deportations is largest among immigrants who don't have criminal charges, despite the Trump admin's claims to be focusing its efforts on "the worst of the worst." https://t.co/QzltALFVzT

The Trump admin has fired about a third of SF’s immigration judges — including those who were most likely to grant asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief, according to a new Chronicle analysis. https://t.co/OBXKDBkHyj

There are at least 75,000 acres of public land in California — about 3x the times of S.F. — that are essentially blocked off by private property. The @sfchronicle's Emma Stiefel maps out where. https://t.co/pxJvgK8hLj

📢 Help spread the news 📢 The @HoustonChron is hiring five (!!) new data reporters to produce high-impact data stories for Texas communities. Here's everything you need to know (plus links to apply or share). A thread🧵⬇️

"When Mission Local asked the ICE officers why (a) woman was taken, given that Homeland Security had not moved to dismiss her case, one of the officers said they might have the wrong person." ... “'That wasn’t her,' one (officer) muttered to the other." https://t.co/8YHL9yfZJa

ICYMI: I wrote my annual Bird Article™️, this time about Canada Geese, coming to a city near you. https://t.co/Ykhx37dOQ7

If you want more data about the immigration court process, check out this story I did earlier this week. More than 100,000 court cases for Bay Area residents have been logged since 2022. Here's what we know about them: https://t.co/c1fwqHRxaq

The San Francisco immigration court has a relatively high grant rate for asylum cases, 70%, likely because many asylum seekers have legal representation. But because there's more cases than attorneys can cover, others are on their own. https://t.co/zgHx3ozQgU

Most people going through immigration court apply for asylum. Some said they fled gang violence, gender-based abused, or political oppression. Now, under Trump, they have to worry about ICE arresting them at the hearings meant to ensure due process.

In 2014-19, it took someone facing deportation in a Bay Area immigration court ~2.3 years to get an initial decision. From 2019-25, that's nearly doubled to 4.5 years.

Immigration reporter Ko Lyn Cheang spent the past several weeks talking to asylum seekers, while I analyzed the most comprehensive immigration court dataset out there. What we found was sobering: https://t.co/zgHx3ozirm

NEW: Beryllium, a metal so toxic that breathing in a tiny amount over time can cause chronic & fatal illness, is being found in homes after the LA wildfires. Nobody knows where it's coming from. Few are testing for it. w/ @meganfanmunce @sfchronicle https://t.co/vD02qawM5Y

After days of increasingly tense protests over immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of military troops to Los Angeles, today’s protests in L.A. and across the nation are expected to be among the largest seen in Trump’s second term. 📸: St. John Barned-Smith