Overview
- Sens. Josh Hawley and Jeff Merkley introduced the Homes for American Families Act to bar large firms from acquiring single-family homes, with an updated HOPE for Homeownership Act also introduced, and the measures now await consideration in Congress.
- The bill would amend the Sherman Antitrust Act to prohibit investment funds with more than $150 million in assets from buying single-family homes, condominiums or townhouses, and it assigns civil enforcement and prioritized reviews to the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
- Homebuilders constructing units for sale would be exempt under the proposal.
- The introduction comes two days after President Trump urged Congress to limit institutional home purchases in his State of the Union address, following his executive order last month directing agencies to avoid facilitating such sales.
- Large investors own 3.8% of single-family rentals nationwide but far higher shares in some metros, including more than 28% in Atlanta and about 20% in Charlotte, and separate legislation from Sens. Merkley and Elizabeth Warren targets tax benefits for owners with 50 or more homes.