More Signs of the Bubble?

[Collin Garbarino]

I saw this article in the WSJ this morning. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-a-house-worth-w...

The article might be behind a paywall, but the main point is that big investment groups like Blackstone are buying properties based on "drive-by" rather than appraisal. Some of these "drive-bys" aren't even physical drive-bys. Some companies in India will give a "broker price opinion" based on Google Earth and some real estate websites for $10 a property.

I'm all for investors eyeballing a market that they know. After all, we know that two official appraisals can come back very different. However, it seems like outsourcing that opinion of value to someone on the other side of the world seems risky.

Anyone seen the effects of this in their market? I don't have any hard evidence, but it seems like this kind of behavior has driven up prices here in the Houston area.