By Aaron Duggan
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March 2, 2026
Over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about residents, and for good reason . People who feel secure in their housing tend to stay longer, take pride in where they live, and contribute to the neighborhoods they’re part of. That’s beneficial for communities, and it’s also beneficial for rental property owners. But lately, there’s been more conversation around what it means to be pro-housing. And while building more homes is part of that solution, it’s also important to talk about the people who provide the rental housing that already exists in communities like La Mesa and throughout San Diego County. A recent opinion piece in the Times of San Diego, You Can’t Be Pro-Housing and Ignore the People Who Provide It , highlights something we see every day in our work as a local property management company. Most rental housing in San Diego isn’t owned by large corporations. It’s owned by individuals and community members. In fact, despite growing public attention on institutional investment in housing , research suggests that large institutional investors own fewer than 5% of detached single-family homes locally and may not be a dominant driver of overall housing costs in San Diego. Nationally, the single-family rental market remains overwhelmingly dominated by individual owners. According to recent BatchData analysis, 89.6% of single-family rental homes are owned by “mom-and-pop” landlords who hold between one and five properties . People renting out a condo they once lived in, a home they inherited, a duplex purchased as part of a retirement plan, or a single investment property meant to help build long-term financial stability.
