For weeks, Republican US Senate candidate Michael Whatley has come under scrutiny for stock holdings in individual companies.
Cardinal & Pine reported in August that Whatley and his family hold a minimum of $149,000 in Duke Energy stock as it seeks to increase power bills for its customers.
Overall, Whatley and his family could hold over $1.5 million in individual stocks, the News & Observer reported in February.
Whatley’s stock holdings also include corporations with financial interests in the real estate market, at a time when home ownership has become more unaffordable.
In North Carolina’s 15 metropolitan areas, only median earners in Rocky Mount could afford a median-priced home in the community.
Statewide, the median listing price of a home on Redfin is just under $400,000, while in Raleigh, the state capital, the median home price is $447,000.
What companies is Whatley invested in?
According to his August financial disclosure report, Whatley’s investments include companies and banks with financial interests in multi- and single-family homes in North Carolina and across the country.
Whatley, his wife, and his children hold stock in two of those companies: Federated Hermes (FHI) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
Combined, Whatley and his family hold between $3,003 and $45,000 in FHI, while his wife and children hold between $4,004 and $60,000 in JPM.
Both companies have financial interests tied to the housing or rental markets in North Carolina.
FHI is a Pittsburgh-based investment manager. In April, the company acquired an 80% stake in FCP, a real estate investment company. FCP owns 8,234 residential units across North Carolina.
In 2020, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and American Homes 4 Rent (AH4R) announced a $625 million joint venture. J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the investment arm of JPM, which manages over $4.3 trillion dollars in assets.
The fund focused on building single-family rental properties in cities across the southwest and southeastern United States.
According to the company’s Dec. 31, 2025, report, AH4R owned 60,337 properties, including 7,925 properties in Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem.
The 4,237 properties AH4R owns in Charlotte are its second most, only behind Atlanta.
How much are corporations buying?
The disclosure does not indicate that Whatley personally owns an interest in FCP or AH4R, and Whatley isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations of JPM or FHI. But he and his family hold up to $105,000 in individual stock of the latter two companies. When these companies perform well, the price of their individual shares is likely to improve as well.
Overall, corporate ownership of properties is relatively low. Roughly 1% of the buyers of single-family homes from 2015 to 2025 owned more than 350 homes.
However, Charlotte ranked third in the nation in corporations buying properties, with 4.2% of single-family properties and 13.5% of all properties purchased by corporations during that 10-year period.
In North Carolina, the vast majority of corporate property ownership is concentrated in the state’s metro areas.
An interactive map from the News & Observer found that the bulk of corporate-owned housing in North Carolina is concentrated in the Charlotte metro area, the Triad, and the Triangle.
