axios.com - Trump institutional investor home ban

President Trump on Wednesday said he's "taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes," linking the move to housing affordability.

Why it matters: Real estate investors — including both large and small-scale operations — bought about 1 in 3 single-family homes sold in the second quarter of 2025, according to a report by market intelligence firm C.J. Patrick using BatchData figures.

Shares of home-owning companies fell sharply Wednesday after Trump's statement.

Companies owning 1,000+ properties represented only 2% of all investor-owned homes in Q2, according to the C.J. Patrick report.
Investors owning up to 10 properties owned more than 90% of investor-owned homes.

Democratic lawmakers have criticized Wall Street's role in the housing market for years dating back to the 2008 financial crisis. Legislation to ban institutional investors from the single-family home market was floated in 2023 and now a Republican president has called for it.

Either way, Congress will need to take action to ban institutional investors from acquiring homes and it will be interesting to watch them squirm as the big bucks guys try to buy their votes (also interesting to see if it affects the type of "single family" condo apartments the Trumps specialize in selling).

Jeff