U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee ranking member, recently sent a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, expressing concern that nothing has been done to curb the role of institutional investors in the housing market.
“Congress recently passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (ROAD), which restricts Wall Street and private equity firms from buying up single-family homes,” Warren wrote. “While ROAD takes a strong first step toward returning homeownership opportunities to the American people, there is more that HUD and FHFA can and should do to limit the role of large institutional investors in housing, including in multifamily and manufactured housing. As large institutional investors engage in rent gouging, poor maintenance practices, and violations of landlord-tenant and fair housing laws, it is critical that the administration act to hold these corporate landlords accountable.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January directing HUD and FHFA to prevent the sale of single-family houses to large investors. Warren urged the agencies to take steps to implement the directives and accused them of entrenching private equity and large corporate landlords in the housing market.