President Donald Trump‘s proposal to ban Wall Street investors from purchasing single-family homes hit a roadblock in Congress and did not make it to the final Housing Bill on Monday.
House Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee (FSC) and other key Republican lawmakers declined the White House’s request to add the investor ban as an amendment to the Housing for the 21st Century Act, a bill aimed at boosting housing supply, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Hill cited the lack of clarity from White House on who qualifies as a “large institutional investor” and what constitutes a “single-family home” as one of the reasons for his denial. He also stated that Trump’s executive order investor ban was issued after the FSC had already reached “tremendous consensus” on its housing package.
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a Tuesday hearing on housing affordability and added three separate investor ban bills to its agenda.
Although some lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.), support Trump’s investor ban proposal, a large number of GOP members remain opposed.
Bipartisan Push Targets Housing Costs
The proposed ban on Wall Street investors in the housing market is a part of Trump’s broader housing policy. The policy aims to address the affordability crisis in the housing market, a pressing issue that has been the subject of bipartisan concern.
On Monday, the House passed a sweeping bipartisan housing package, The Housing for the 21st Century Act, that seeks to tackle the nation’s affordability crisis by encouraging states and cities to build more homes.
The bill packages more than 20 measures, including Government Accountability Office studies on gaps in federal housing programs and updates to HUD’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program, while also incentivizing local governments to ease zoning rules and other obstacles to new construction.
Experts Question The Impact Of Trump’s Proposal
Trump’s proposal, meanwhile, has raised concerns about its real impact. Jina Yoon, Chief Alternative Investment Strategist at LPL Financial, said the administration’s “Main Street vs. Wall Street” framing overlooks the fact that individual investors, not corporations, are the primary drivers crowding out homebuyers. Yoon said large institutional investors account for just 2–3% of U.S. single-family homes and are concentrated in a few markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Charlotte.
In a previous report, Blackstone (NYSE:BX) said institutional investors account for just 0.5% of the U.S. single-family home market, with its own exposure even smaller at 0.06%. It added that its activity is largely focused on build-to-rent via Tricon Residential, which is exempt under Trump’s executive order.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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