President Donald Trump speaks during the House Republican Party general meeting at the Kennedy Center on January 6, 2026 in Washington.
almond and | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s renewed focus on housing affordability has found a clear villain: institutional investors who own large swaths of single-family homes in fast-growing Sun Belt cities, where would-be homeowners are increasingly bidding against Wall Street.
Trump argued in a social media post on Wednesday that corporate ownership had helped put housing further out of reach for the average American and said he was taking immediate steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.
The message could be aimed at places like Atlanta and Jacksonville, metro areas where investor participation is well above the national average.
While institutional investors only own about 2% of the nation’s single-family rental housing inventory, their presence is far more concentrated in parts of the Southeast. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, for example, estimates that investors control about a quarter of the single-family rental market in Atlanta, more than a fifth of Jacksonville and significant shares in Charlotte and Tampa.
Enlarge symbolArrows point outwards
Wall Street is shopping in the Sun Belt
These concentrations stem from the aftermath of the financial crisis, when major investors aggressively moved into foreclosure-ridden real estate markets. By buying homes in bulk, they helped stabilize prices in hard-hit regions that saw sharp declines, particularly the Sun Belt, according to Wolfe Research.
“While their total acreage is limited, ownership is heavily concentrated in Sunbelt cities, likely reflecting expectations of greater housing price appreciation,” Wolfe analysts said in a recent note to clients.
The idea of curbing Wall Street’s role in housing is not new. Analysts at BTIG point out that Congress has made numerous attempts to curb institutional home ownership in recent years, ranging from stricter regulations and funding restrictions to outright ownership bans and even forced liquidations.
“Bureaucratic limitations have historically hampered legislation in Congress, and as it stands now, most bills are still in the ‘introduction phase,'” BTIG said in a note.
Trump did not provide details about how such a ban would be implemented. The president said he plans to unveil additional housing and affordability proposals in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in two weeks.
—CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.