Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill in both houses of Congress on Tuesday to ban hedge funds from buying and owning single-family homes in the United States. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Adam Smith said hedge funds have created a situation where ordinary people are bidding for homes against billionaires. Via the New York Times:
The bill would require hedge funds, defined as corporations, partnerships or real estate investment trusts that manage funds pooled from investors, to sell off all the single-family homes they own over a 10-year period, and eventually prohibit such companies from owning any single-family homes at all. During the decade-long phaseout period, the bill would impose stiff tax penalties, with the proceeds reserved for down-payment assistance for individuals looking to buy homes from corporate owners.
If signed into law, the legislation, called the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023, could upend a growing sector of the housing market, and potentially increase the supply of single-family homes available for individual buyers. Homeownership, long a cornerstone of generational wealth in the United States, is increasingly out of reach for Americans as home prices and interest rates soar.
[...] In separate legislation, Representatives Jeff Jackson and Alma Adams of North Carolina, both Democrats, introduced the American Neighborhoods Protection Act on Wednesday. That bill would require corporate owners of more than 75 single-family homes to pay an annual fee of $10,000 per home into a housing trust fund to be used as down payment assistance for families.
