Titled ‘Stopping Wall Street From Competing With Main Street Homebuyers,’ the order aims to preserve the supply of single-family homes.
President Donald Trump is attempting to breathe life back into the American dream of owning a home with an executive order signed Tuesday.
Titled “Stopping Wall Street From Competing With Main Street Homebuyers,” the order aims to put single-family homes back into reach for prospective homebuyers, especially first-time buyers. Trump blamed Wall Street investors and the previous administration for pricing out families.
High inflation and interest rates caused by former President Joe Biden put the American Dream out of reach for homebuyers, the president wrote in his order. Meanwhile, large investors were gobbling up single-family homes.
“Hard-working young families cannot effectively compete for starter homes with Wall Street firms and their vast resources,” Trump said. “Neighborhoods and communities once controlled by middle-class American families are now run by faraway corporate interests.”
To preserve the supply of single-family homes, Trump outlined several steps to be taken over the next couple of months to prevent institutional investors from continually buying properties.
Within 30 days of the executive order, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Ryan Baasch are tasked with developing definitions of “large institutional investor” and “single-family home.”
Bessent is also instructed to consider revising rules and guidance relating to Wall Street firms acquiring or holding homes.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, General Services Administrator Edward Forst, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte are tapped to issue guidance within 60 days on how to prevent large investors from purchasing single-family homes to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The same group is also responsible for issuing guidance on promoting sales to “individual owner-occupants, including through anti-circumvention provisions, first-look policies, and disclosure requirements.”
Secretary Turner, specifically, shall require owners and managing agents of single-family rentals enrolled in federal housing assistance programs to disclose to his agency any changes in ownership to determine if there’s involvement of large investors.
Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson to review substantial acquisitions, including series of acquisitions, of single-family homes by institutional investors for anti-competitive effects. Anti-trust laws are to be enforced against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies by large firms.
“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’s executive order reads.
“My 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.”
By Troy Myers
