President Donald Trump is moving to ban “large institutional investors” from buying up United States homes meant for Americans, a move that is likely to be welcomed with bipartisan support.
On Wednesday, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that he would be taking action to prevent corporations from buying single-family American homes — a growing trend that researchers have said has been a drag for first-time homebuyers, neighborhoods, and quality of life.
Trump said Congress ought to codify the ban into law so that a new administration cannot open the door for investors to buy single-family homes in the future.
“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing,” Trump wrote in the post, “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.”
He continued:
It is for that reason, and much more, that I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations. I will discuss this topic, including further Housing and Affordability proposals, and more, at my speech in Davos in two weeks. [Emphasis added]
The latest numbers show that investors purchased more than 345,000 U.S. homes in just one quarter of last year, making up about 33 percent of all home purchases that quarter.
Most recently, real estate data showed that in areas hit by wildfires last year in Los Angeles County, California, investors are buying up about 40 percent of properties as homeowners are increasingly unable to afford to rebuild.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business reviewed real estate data and neighborhood records from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where institutional investors bought up almost seven percent of single-family homes sold in the county from 2011 to 2021.
The findings were that in nearly every aspect, investors buying single-family homes has a negative impact on American communities.
“When institutional investors start purchasing at this scale, the effects really start to compound, leading to broader declines in these neighborhoods. As these areas grow and become more concentrated with investor-owned properties, the overall decline becomes even more noticeable,” Stephen Billings, the lead author of the study, said.
“It’s not surprising that the character of the community changes,” Billings said. “When people are constantly moving in and out, it’s hard to expect anyone to truly invest in the long-term well-being of the neighborhood.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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