will be Harvey houses.

"It's like blood in the water with sharks," Kriegel said.

Bundling and selling

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, banks were left with millions of foreclosed homes. In 2012, large investors, including private equity giant Blackstone Group, which now manages $450 billion in assets, began investing in the purchase of such homes, helping kick off the nascent industry.

And in 2013, Blackstone designed a bond backed by single-family home rent. Companies then started to bundle rental homes based on risk, as done with mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis, and sell the securities on Wall Street as a way to borrow money, fueling the purchase of even more homes. Credit ratings agency Morningstar says 13 single-family rental companies have now issued $24.5 billion in such securities.

Between 2005have securitized Houston houses, including a few that have since flooded.

"These investors don't give a rat's arse about the long-term stability of the neighborhood," said University of Leeds researcher Alex Schafran, an urban planner who has written on the subject for the Federal Reserve Bank. "They just care about their asset."

Trucks are submerged on Pine Cliff Drive as Addicks Reservoir nears capacity due to near constant rain from Tropical Storm Harvey Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle) Trucks are submerged on Pine Cliff Drive as Addicks Reservoir nears capacity due to near constant rain from Tropical Storm Harvey Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle) Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff / Houston Chronicle Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff /