Housing News

Would President Trump’s Ban on Big Investors Buying Single-Family Homes Bring Down Housing Costs?

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to ban large Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes, arguing that investor activity has worsened the housing affordability crisis.

Several large institutional investors, such as Blackstone, have been purchasing quantities of single-family homes in recent years. Often these homes are converted into rental properties.

In some cases, these large investors are pricing out regular homebuyers searching for places to live.

“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, where he blamed the Democrats for the high costs. “That American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans.”

“It is for that reason, and much more, that I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,” he wrote. “I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations.”

The president said he will discuss this and other housing affordability proposals at his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland later this month.

Trump did not provide more details on how such a ban would be implemented.

Would a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes help affordability?

It’s not clear if banning Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes would drive down costs.

Affordability is driven by a mix of factors, including home prices, mortgage rates, and limited housing stock in many areas.

The national median sales price hit $426,800 for existing homes in the third quarter of 2025 after peaking at $435,300 earlier in the season, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“The economic impact would be modest at best. Institutional investors own only a small share of the single-family housing stock nationwide,” said Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel in a statement. “Trump’s proposal appears to focus on banning future purchases rather than forcing existing owners to sell.”

Investors purchased about 10.8% of homes in mid-2025, according to a Realtor.com report. And nearly two-thirds of those sales, more than 60%, were from smaller investors who wouldn’t be impacted by this proposal.

The federal government may also not be able to legally stop institutional investors from buying these properties.

“Overall, the proposal is unlikely to move the needle on affordability,” said Krimmel. “The affordability crisis is fundamentally a [housing] supply problem, and meaningful relief requires adding homes, both through new construction or through inventory gains in chronically constrained markets.”