Trump says U.S. to ban large investors from buying homes
Source: CNBC
Published Wed, Jan 7 2026 1:00 PM EST Updated 27 Min Ago
President Donald Trump said the U.S. should bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, arguing that corporate ownership has helped push housing further out of reach for everyday Americans.
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, 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, Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday. 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, he added.
Private equity giants, real estate investment trusts and other large institutional investors have amassed sizable portfolios of single-family rental homes over the past decade. Many have argued that these investments have reduced housing supply for would-be homeowners and helped drive up prices.
Invitation Homes, which is the largest renter of single-family homes in the country, tumbled 7%. Shares of Blackstone, a investing firm which owns and rents single-family homes, dropped 4%. Shares of other big institutional investors involved in real estate also declined, including Apollo Global Management and BlackRock.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/trump-housing-affordability.html
...until they pay tribute.
marble falls
(71,076 posts)... those homes already already held, and the millions of units sitting vacant to keep rents and sales prices up?
blm
(114,430 posts)and GOP blocked it from a floor vote..
Democrats introduce bills to ban hedge funds from single-family housing market
The measures were introduced in both the House and Senate to compel hedge funds to sell off all single-family homes they own over a decade and ultimately ban their participation
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/democrats-introduce-bills-to-ban-hedge-funds-from-single-family-housing-market/
markie
(23,848 posts)IF he really cared, it would be sooner and so much bigger
Strelnikov_
(8,104 posts)Of course, nothing will be done. Just adding one more pitch to his routine for the proles.
Seems his handlers, though, have finally realized that housing costs are a large part of the affordability issue. Also, the 50 yr. mortgage 'idea' must not have focus tested very well.
viva la
(4,490 posts)Didn't go over well, did it?
Affordability... well, what I know we CAN'T afford is wars with Venezuela, the EU, and Iran.
And Colombia. And Cuba. And Minnesota.
thesquanderer
(12,903 posts)Someone needs to tell the Supreme Court.
newdeal2
(4,778 posts)After all, corporations own apartment buildings and commercial real estate. Why are single family homes a different kind of investment vehicle that they cant own?
Ol Janx Spirit
(717 posts)The billionaire-class will never let this happen and he knows it.... It's an extortion move.
Xipe Totec
(44,473 posts)Javaman
(65,113 posts)not fooled
(6,606 posts)Wouldn't surprise me if large investors are poised to unload real estate. krasnov would never actually do anything to hurt the billionaires who own him.
EPSTEIN
Fiendish Thingy
(22,045 posts)But as others have noted, there surely is another shoe that will drop on this.
If a bill were to pass restricting private equity ownership (as opposed to purchasing, which would exclude homes already owned by equity firms) of single family homes, forcing the investment groups to sell their real estate holdings, housing prices would drop dramatically.
I dont expect that to happen, but its a good policy for Dems 2028 platform.
paleotn
(21,545 posts)He doesn't actually DO ANYTHING about it. EVER. Too much money to be made by his buddies and himself.
Magat garbage humans will occasionally regurgitate shit like this, and purposefully fail to state that he didn't DO a goddamn thing.
SergeStorms
(19,960 posts)Son-in-laws of demented presidents are exempt.
wiggs
(8,681 posts)wiggs
(8,681 posts)BLewis
(6 posts)But they can continue buy all the apartment buildings they want.
ToxMarz
(2,757 posts)and there is really nothing in this for us.
Bayard
(28,577 posts)Wasn't record high inflation, (and Covid,) handed to Biden from trump's first term? Then, Biden handed trump a pretty good economy that he has totally squandered.
I don't recall any other president bad mouthing their predecessor the way trump does. No respect. No class.
paleotn
(21,545 posts)They're "his kind of people" after all.
Uncle Joe
(64,231 posts)From his MO, *rump is most likely playing these corporations for some form of monetary inducement to change his mind.
Everything is about greasing his palms or those of his family and cabal.
flvegan
(65,773 posts)Not like they can't simply create a new LLC in most states to buy each home. 2,000 LLCs for each 2,000 homes.
Idiot.
Prairie Gates
(7,194 posts)Nice little residential rental business model ya got going there. Be a shame if anything was to happen to it.
Only rubes think Trump is serious about the policy. This is a threat, and will be treated as a request for payment by Blackstone and the entire industry.
TomSlick
(12,881 posts)hatrack
(64,249 posts)Fuck. Off.
choie
(6,614 posts)Not will Im sure hes waiting for the check to clear before he decides that perhaps its not such a good idea.
hamsterjill
(17,011 posts)How is he going to tell these large homebuilders that they can't sell their product to whoever they want?
BradBo
(924 posts)Jack Valentino
(4,365 posts)have been thinking the same myself for years....
jmowreader
(52,901 posts)Comment 1: Trump didn't write that. We know that.
Comment 2: If you want to know how the government creates jobs in the private sector, look no further than "Trump's" post. If this comes to fruition, which I doubt it will - the people who buy up single-family homes donate heavily to Republicans - two new industries will pop up.
The first will be financial advisors who, for enough of a fee, will structure your business so it can continue to buy single family homes without alerting the government.
The second will be lawyers pointing out two things to courts: that since any other kind of housing can freely be bought by institutional investors restricting single-family detached housing from institutional investment is discriminatory, and that it isn't "institutional investors" that are keeping people from being able to afford houses, but that houses have gotten way too expensive. In Coeur d'Alene, ID, anything that doesn't need to have the roof, wiring and plumbing replaced before you move in is at least $500k.
Old Crank
(6,668 posts)Causing the shortage....
mahina
(20,428 posts)Note the empty promise.
Yet he is fully capable of directing whole departments, noodle the rules and dictate specific instructions to both R houses of Congress when he cares.
33taw
(3,287 posts)the_liberal_grandpa
(265 posts)There are more vacant homes in America than there are homelesss people?
Perhaps 14-15 million empty homes and nearly 800,000 homeless.
Corporations and foriegn investors ability to buy homes in the USA should be severely curbed.
Regular Americans have no chance of outbidding either of these entities who also pay cash.
The homes sit empty as they were purchased only for a place to park extra cash and not to live in.
I can't believe the felon is actually proposing to change this as it is a good idea and much needed.
I also find it interesting that congress, or at least the repubs have no interest in doing it.
BumRushDaShow
(165,752 posts)There are a sizeable amount (spread out) of DIY "amateur real estate investors" who decided to do a "side business" of "house-flipping". Many of them start "young" and will get a few friends to help buy a distressed/foreclosed house, fix it up, then flip it to what often ends up being another "flipper" for some amount of profit.... And that new "owner" will in turn, make some "upscale improvements" and offer it up to what ends up being yet another "flipper" (at an even higher price for profit). Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
So for years, that house sits EMPTY with no one to live in it to help enhance a neighborhood, while these "flippers" treat these homes like fiat currency or basically, "money laundering"`.
I remember almost 30 years ago in the neighborhood where I grew up, where there was a street not far from mine at the time, where something like 15 houses on that block (they were small twins/semi-detached), were all vacant and being flipped.
I even remember after Detroit pretty much collapsed, and countries like Saudi swooped in and bought up entire streets of abandoned homes to tear down and repurpose the land and/or try to build McMansions on larger lots.