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President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Tuesday targeting Wall Street-backed investors who have been buying up single-family homes, arguing the practice has priced American families out of homeownership and turned neighborhoods into corporate assets rather than places to live.
The order directs multiple federal agencies to limit federal support for such purchases and calls on the Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to step up antitrust scrutiny of large institutional investors in the housing market.
“Buying and owning a home has long been considered the pinnacle of the American dream and a way for families to invest and build lifetime wealth,” Trump wrote in the order. He said that dream has become increasingly out of reach for many Americans, especially first-time homebuyers.
“At the same time, a growing share of single-family homes, often concentrated in certain communities, have been purchased by large Wall Street investors, crowding out families seeking to buy homes,” the president wrote.
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Trump argued that individual buyers cannot compete with institutional capital, saying, “Hardworking young families cannot effectively compete for starter homes with Wall Street firms and their vast resources.”
“Neighborhoods and communities once controlled by middle-class American families are now run by faraway corporate interests,” he added. “People live in homes, not corporations.”
The executive order states that it is the policy of the Trump administration that “large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families.”
Within 60 days, several federal agencies are instructed to issue guidance to prevent the federal government from supporting such purchases.
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Trump also ordered the attorney general and the chairman of the FTC to review large-scale purchases of single-family homes for potential anti-competitive effects.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is also directed to require landlords participating in federal housing assistance programs to disclose ownership and management information to identify “any involvement of large institutional investors.”
The order allows for “appropriate, narrowly tailored exceptions” for build-to-rent communities that are “planned, permitted, financed, and constructed as rental communities,” a provision aimed at preserving legitimate rental development.
Trump also signaled the action is intended as more than a temporary measure, directing senior White House staff to prepare legislation to make the policy into law.
Trump framed the order as both an economic and moral issue, writing that his administration “will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes.”
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In a fact sheet accompanying the order, the White House said the move is aimed at “putting American families first in the housing market” and argued that institutional buyers have crowded out first-time homebuyers in many communities.
The White House referred FOX Business to their fact sheet on the order.
