The steep drop in September home sales reported Wednesday steered attention to the housing recession, adding to expectations of a broader economic malaise. Real estate players of all sorts are battening hatches as inflation pressures and rising interest rates gnaw into home prices and demand. Among the groups to watch as real estate pulls back is a new investor class in the single-family home rental market. X Institutional landlords, major players for decades in the multifamily space, are now exerting an increasing influence in a number of the U.S. markets for detached single-family homes. In a landscape where rental homes were traditionally owned by individuals or small businesses, these newer…