Here's why investors buy up houses: they know your neighbors will do the dirty work of artificially constraining the housing supply, which makes it a good investment. Here's one who comes right out and explains this: > Meanwhile, local opposition to building is so commonplace and the approval process so cumbersome, time consuming, and expensive, even when a proposed project complies entirely with requirements, approv…
I just experienced something similar to this and it makes me wonder if much of this is just perception. We recently dealt with an out of state builder pushing to have a property that was zoned Neighborhood Commercial to be rezoned to something more flexible so that he could build 49 town homes with 49 parking spots on 5 acres of land. Everybody opposed the rezoning and fought to defeat it. The project would have been…
Commercial is critical for '15 minute neighborhoods': https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/9/6/7-rules-for-cre... - but without the density to support local commerce, it's tough to justify it.
But I don't think 15 minute neighborhoods are likely what your angry neighbors had in mind, so most likely just NIMBYism.