A Cincinnati government entity outbid more than a dozen investment firms to buy 194 homes in and around the city, a move meant to keep tenants in their homes and private investors out of their neighborhoods, reports Konrad Putzier and Will Parker for the Wall Street Journal. The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority paid $14.5 million for the properties and plans to upgrade the houses and eventually sell them to low- and middle-income buyers. The program is the most aggressive response yet by local officials looking to keep homes out of the hands of professional investors, write Putzier and Parker. Publicly traded companies, private-equity firms and thousands of smaller investors have been buying up single-family homes and renting them out, usually to people who can’t afford the steep down payments.