Will Evicting Blackstone Help Young People Buy Homes?
Mega investors are a mega problem. But not the only one.
It’s hard to get consensus in Washington, but nearly everyone agrees there’s an epic housing crisis. Mega institutional investors, many in both parties agree, need a mega purge.
President Donald Trump has taken a rhetorical hatchet to the Blackstones and Vanguards for snapping up starter homes, saying that “another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is homeownership” during his State of the Union address, and that “we want homes for people, not for corporations. Corporations are doing just fine.”
The idea of limiting their access to the housing market has bipartisan support. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cleared the Senate in a 89-to-10 vote Thursday and is now with the House, which passed its own housing bill in February. It would ban companies that own 350 or more homes from buying more, responding to lobbying from the White House and an executive order Trump signed to that effect.
But the problems with the housing market are many, and the details have gotten relatively little attention in the press.
