President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that protects single-family homes from Wall Street investors.
“Hardworking young families cannot effectively compete for starter homes with Wall Street firms and their vast resources. Neighborhoods and communities once controlled by middle-class American families are now run by faraway corporate interests,” the order read. “People live in homes, not corporations. My Administration will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes.”
Within 30 days of the order, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will develop definitions of “large institutional investor” and “single-family home.” Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson will “review substantial acquisitions, including series of acquisitions, by large institutional investors of single-family homes in local single-family housing markets for anti-competitive effects and prioritize enforcement of the antitrust laws, as appropriate, against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies by large institutional investors in local single-family home rental markets.”
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, will require owners and agents of single-family home rentals involved in federal housing assistance programs to disclose to the agency any changes in ownership or affiliation with large investors.
President Trump announced earlier this month that he sought to take steps to “ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,” and would urge Congress to codify the order.
“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing, but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans.”
