President Donald Trump stated his administration will take action to prohibit large Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes in bulk, framing the effort as an attempt to restore access to homeownership for ordinary families who’ve been priced out of the market. In a , he warned that “the American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans,” and vowed to stop big investors from buying the proverbial house next door.
Trump said the federal government will seek to ban institutional investors and major Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes—a segment that has become a profitable asset class for large landlords and private equity. He cast the initiative as a turning point in housing policy, arguing “people live in homes, not corporations” and that families shouldn’t have to compete with “billion-dollar funds” for starter houses.
In his post, Trump linked the squeeze on homebuyers to what he claimed was “record high inflation” under President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress, saying the cost surge has locked many young Americans out of homeownership. “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.” The housing market has slowed to a near standstill in recent years following a pandemic-era boom, when prices doubled in most markets as people reordered their lives amid remote work and social distancing.
Sean Dobson, CEO of The Amherst Group—one of America’s top institutional landlords—said in a statement to that blaming institutional ownership for the housing market’s affordability problems is simply “inaccurate,” as it “gets both the problem and the solution wrong.” He noted America’s current housing crisis stems from “years of policy failure, not the families who rent or the capital that houses them.” He pointed out that Amherst serves over 200,000 residents, nearly 85% of whom wouldn’t qualify to buy the homes they live in today. Trump’s potential ban, if realized, would be “unacceptable” because it would threaten institutional rental housing and harm real families. “Our industry is not the cause of the housing crisis, it is part of the solution.”
‘House next door’ message
Trump’s message focused on the symbolism of investors acquiring properties in residential neighborhoods, promising to stop Wall Street from buying the house next door and turning it into an investment vehicle. Housing advocates and some local officials have warned that bulk purchases by institutional buyers can drain the supply of for-sale homes and push families into permanent renter status.
The president’s post echoed this criticism, arguing large-scale buying crowds out first-time buyers and drives prices beyond what middle-class incomes can afford.
Trump has not yet released draft legislation or an executive order, but officials and outside analysts say the administration is exploring several avenues—including outright purchase bans for institutional buyers and stricter limits on how many single-family homes a large investor can own. Any such move would likely target firms above certain asset or ownership thresholds, rather than mom-and-pop landlords or small local investors.
The president said he would flesh out the plan later this month, including at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, where housing affordability is expected to feature in his speech.
Shares of single-family rental real estate investment trusts and housing-focused private equity firms slid after Trump’s comments, as investors weighed the risk of future curbs on their ability to grow portfolios. Analysts noted some of the largest players collectively own hundreds of thousands of houses, making them particularly vulnerable to any federal ownership cap or purchase prohibition.
[This report has been updated to include a statement from Amherst CEO Sean Dobson.]