Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is expanding its presence in the U.S. real estate market in a new venture with Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Bloomberg News reports that the new venture, HSF Affiliates LLC, will have a combined network of more than 53,000 agents operating in about 1,700 U.S. locations. Berkshire Hathaway's HomeServices unit will be the majority owner of the venture.
‘We have significant inventory shortage across the country, and prices have fallen,’ says Ron Peltier, CEO of HomeServices. ‘When you add the pieces up together with low interest rates, we see a housing market that will continue to improve.’
The 82-year-old Buffett has been vocally optimistic on the business opportunities within the residential housing market, if not entirely accurate in his forecasts. In February 2011, he predicted that a housing recovery would commence ‘within a year or so.’ This summer, he told Bloomberg that housing's revival ‘was just a question of getting households in balance with’ the supply of available housing.