Trump signs executive order curbing institutional housing investors

NEW YORK, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order restricting large institutional investors from competing with individual homebuyers in an effort to make housing more affordable for Americans.

"To preserve the supply of single-family homes for American families and increase the paths to homeownership, it is the policy of my Administration that large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families," Trump said in the order.

Under pressure to address voter affordability concerns ahead of congressional elections this year, Trump has recently pushed a number of major policy proposals aiming to boost home ownership and rein in living costs, local media reported on Tuesday.

A 2024 study by the Government Accountability Office found that since the 2008 financial crisis, which triggered a wave of home foreclosures, Wall Street institutions have acquired thousands of single-family homes.

By June 2022, these institutional investors owned approximately 450,000 homes, representing about 3 percent of all single-family rental properties nationwide. ■