Push to curb big investors collides with Congress’s supply‑first housing agenda
President Donald Trump’s promise to ban large Wall Street investors from buying single‑family homes has run into stiff resistance on Capitol Hill, stalling one of his headline housing ideas even as affordability pressures mount for borrowers.
Lawmakers in both chambers have spent months assembling bipartisan housing packages built around boosting supply – faster approvals, more building near transit and incentives for new construction – and are reluctant to reopen hard‑won compromises to add a sweeping investor ban.
Any such amendment “could derail the bipartisan momentum behind both housing packages that have been in the works for months,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Lawmakers wary of upending bipartisan housing bills
In the House, Republicans balked at grafting the ban onto the Housing for the 21st Century Act. Financial Services Committee chair French Hill instead scheduled a separate hearing to examine three standalone investor‑ban bills, signaling how divisive the proposal has become inside the GOP.
Hill’s panel already forged what he described as “tremendous consensus” around a supply‑side package before Trump’s executive order targeting large buyers of single‑family homes.
Shortly before the House vote, the Office of Management and Budget warned that the main bill “lacks other presidential priorities, particularly a ban on the purchase of single-family homes by large institutional investors,” according to a statement to House members.
The bill ultimately passed 390‑9, while the Senate already approved similar legislation months earlier, leaving the White House searching for another vehicle.
Competing visions for fixing affordability
The clash exposes a deeper split over how to tackle a housing market in which sales sank to a 30‑year low and prices jumped more than 50% since 2019, squeezing first‑time buyers.
Trump focuses on demand, arguing that “large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families,” and insisting he does not want to lower existing owners’ home values.
Many lawmakers prefer to lean harder on supply, echoing mortgage industry voices who told Mortgage Professional America that “we need more supply” in almost every market to ease both housing and rental affordability.
How much do big investors really matter?
Institutional landlords own only a small slice of the single‑family market, even as overall investor activity remains elevated. BatchData and ATTOM estimate that investors control roughly one‑fifth of US single‑family homes, but institutional portfolios of 1,000‑plus houses account for only about 2% of that stock, with small landlords dominating.
Still, pressure on younger, mortgage‑dependent buyers remain intense. Investors make up between roughly a quarter and a third of single‑family purchases in recent years, according to CoreLogic and other data providers, a share that stays above pre‑pandemic norms even as their absolute buying slows.
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