Both Legislative and Executive Branches Taking Steps to Increase Home Affordability for Single-Family Homes
- Eric Fogle
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
By Editor-in-Chief: Eric Fogle
Justice Robert Jackson, in the famous Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer case outlined a tripartite schema of presidential authority in relation to legislative authority. When the President works with congressional approval, presidential power is at its highest. When the President works in opposition to the legislative branch, presidential power is weakest. When the President works without congressional approval, but absent congressional opposition, presidential power is somewhere in the middle.
Both Congress and President Trump are taking steps to increase the affordability of single-family homes.
The Executive Order
On January 20th, President Trump signed an executive order designed to promote availability of single-family homes by restricting the ability of institutional investors from buying those homes.
The executive order directs the Secretary of the Treasury to review the rules and guidance relating to institutional investors holding single-family homes and consider revision. The executive order also directs the Attorney General and Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to review the acquisitions of single-family homes by institutional investors. In addition, the executive order directs the Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs to prepare a legislative recommendation so that “large institutional investors do not acquire single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families.”
The Proposed Laws
In December 2023, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act (S. 3402), which would tax hedge fund taxpayers who own a certain number of single-family homes.
On February 26, 2023 Senator Merkley and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Homes for American Families Act. The bill is meant to be an update of the HOPE (Humans Over Private Equity) for Homeownership Act, which was introduced in February 2025. The proposed Hope for American Families Act defines “insurance company,” “investment company,” “private fund,” and “real estate investment trust.”
There is no definition of the term “institutional investor.” However, the terms used by the drafters would likely suffice.
The largest institutional single-family landlords include real estate investment trusts. Real estate investment trusts are companies, often publicly traded, that manage, operate, or finance income-producing real estate. Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent are both real estate investment firms who together owned over 150,000 single-family homes as of the fourth quarter of 2025.
According to SenatorMerkley’s website, the Homes for American Families Act would prohibit large institutional investors from purchasing single family homes. It would also authorize the Department of Justice to enforce civil violations and prioritized antitrust review for purchases of residential real estate by institutional investors.
While no laws have made their way through Congress, the Homes for American Families Act and President Trump’s January 20th executive order share common goals and language. Both recognize that large investment firms dominate the single-family housing market and seek to return the ability to purchase single-family homes to families
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