President Donald Trump has moved to curb Wall Street’s reach into America’s suburban streets, signing an executive order aimed at keeping single-family homes within reach of individual buyers rather than large investment firms.
The directive frames homeownership as a policy priority, arguing that houses built for families should not be snapped up by institutions with deep pockets and national scale. The order says federal programs should stop tilting the field toward corporate buyers and instead steer sales toward people looking to live in the homes they purchase.
Under the new policy, federal agencies are instructed to promote sales to individual buyers and prevent government-backed channels from facilitating bulk purchases of single-family homes by large investors. Foreclosed properties, in particular, are to be offered first to individuals and other non-institutional buyers before investment firms get a look.
The administration has also tasked competition watchdogs with scrutinizing major acquisitions by institutional landlords in the single-family rental market, signaling tougher oversight of deals that could limit competition or inflate prices.
Housing affordability has become a flashpoint ahead of congressional elections, and the order fits into a broader push by the White House to cool costs. Earlier this month, Trump directed government-backed mortgage giants to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage bonds in an effort to ease borrowing conditions.
Institutional investors have been a growing presence in the housing market since the foreclosure wave that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Firms backed by Wall Street capital accumulated thousands of homes, turning them into rental portfolios spread across fast-growing cities and suburbs. By mid-2022, such investors owned roughly 450,000 single-family rental homes nationwide—about 3% of the total—according to a recent government study.
The White House says it will also prepare proposals for lawmakers to lock these restrictions into law, making it harder for large investors to expand their hold on single-family housing.
Targeting corporate landlords places Trump on ground more commonly occupied by his political rivals, who have long argued that large-scale homebuying by investment firms has pushed prices higher for everyday buyers. This time, the administration is betting that drawing a boundary around family homes will resonate with voters feeling priced out of the market.
