Lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices
Wall Street went on a home-buying spree. Now, more lawmakers want to stop it from ever happening again.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House have sponsored legislation that would force large owners of single-family homes to sell houses to family buyers. A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.
Lawmakers in Nebraska, California, New York, Minnesota and North Carolina are among those proposing similar laws.
While homeowner associations for years have sought to stop investors from buying and renting out houses in their neighborhoods, the legislative proposals represent a new effort by elected officials to regulate Wall Street’s appetite for single-family homes.
These lawmakers say that investors that have scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are contributing to the dearth of homes for sale and driving up home prices. They argue that investor buying has made it harder for first-time buyers to compete with Wall Street-backed investment firms and their all-cash offers.
They paid for a lawyer? I’m jealous. I couldn’t even get mine to create a 2024 budget…in April…which is not only needed for a lender to approve the sale, it’s a legal requirement to run an HOA. And this was after the president sabotaged the first sale because I renovated it and the appraisal would make his taxes go up. So glad I’m finally out of that place…
It was a huge PITA. Our fees are very low (thank goodness) so we don’t have much of a budget to work with. But it was one of those unicorn bipartisan things where almost everyone really wanted to do it. Even some of the nay-sayers changed their minds after all was said and done and they saw how it actually works (and not how they feared it would work).