Photo: President Donald Trump gestures while he speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week that aims to limit institutional investors’ purchases of single-family homes.
The order, “Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers,” directs agencies, including HUD and FHFA, to issue guidance and rules restricting federal support for institutional investors.
Agencies are also directed to promote sales to individual buyers through “first-look” policies – giving individuals and non-institutional investors the opportunity to buy foreclosed properties before investors do – disclosure requirements, and anti-circumvention measures, according to a White House fact sheet.
“To preserve the supply of single-family homes for American families and increase the paths to homeownership, it is the policy of my Administration that large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families,” Trump’s order states.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner is also directed to identify potential large institutional investors involved in Federal housing assistance programs by requiring disclosure of ownership in single-family rentals.
“Build-to-rent” communities are exempt from the order, as well as “narrowly tailored” additional exceptions to be determined in the coming agency guidance.
The move appears to be a response to the ongoing affordability crisis, which Trump has promised to address. Americans are feeling financially unstable and struggling to keep up month to month, with housing costs at the forefront of their troubles.
Though some analysts have lauded the move, many experts say restricting purchases will cause more harm than good for the housing market overall.
“Blaming institutional ownership for housing unaffordability is inaccurate and gets both the problem and the solution wrong,” Sean Dobson, chairman, CEO, and CIO of real estate investment and development firm Amherst, told Newsweek.
“Our industry is not the cause of the housing crisis, it is part of the solution.”
