Trump threatens to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes  

Large institutional investors such as Blackstone, JPMorgan Chase, and other banks and investment firms have increasingly snapped up family homes in recent years, eyeing rising returns on home prices. These investors often buy and rent out homes, and their presence grew after the foreclosure wave during the Great Recession in 2008, particularly in the Sun Belt states.

Trump said he plans to outline additional housing and affordability proposals in the coming weeks, noting: “I will discuss this topic, including further Housing and Affordability proposals, and more, at my speech in Davos in two weeks.”

Trump is scheduled to deliver an address at the World Economic Forum later this month in Davos, Switzerland.

US housing market in a deep freeze

The cost of buying a home in the United States has surged in recent years, largely because of a housing market that has remained historically stuck due to low inventory, combined with mortgage rates north of 6%.

Beyond the general lack of housing, many sellers have been unwilling to give up the ultra-low mortgage rates they locked in during the pandemic, when the Federal Reserve brought down interest rates to near zero.

Between the start of 2020 and the third quarter of 2025, home prices climbed nearly 55% nationwide, according to a recent report from the National Association of Home Builders.

No investor owned 1,000 or more single-family rental homes as of 2011, according to the Government Accountability Office. However, by 2015, institutional investors collectively owned up to 300,000 homes.

In Atlanta; Jacksonville, Florida; and Charlotte, North Carolina, large investors controlled more than 15% of the market for single-family homes as of 2022, according to the GAO.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed barring certain corporate investors from the home-buying market, arguing that their practice of buying houses en masse has pushed up prices and made it harder for individual Americans to find homes.

But some housing experts and economists have panned the idea to ban large investors, contending that it would have little impact on overall housing stock and risk depressing investment in the market.

“This will not fix housing affordability. It may boost single-family purchases, but it will come at the cost of reducing single-family rentals,” said Jaret Seiberg, analyst at TD Cowen, in a note Wednesday.