President Donald J. Trump signed a sweeping executive order Tuesday designed to block Wall Street from muscling Main Street out of the housing market — a move the White House says will put American families back in the driver’s seat when it comes to buying a home.
The order targets large institutional investors that have been scooping up single-family homes, often outbidding first-time buyers and young families with deep pockets and all-cash offers. Trump’s directive makes clear: homes are for people, not corporations.
Under the order, key federal agencies are instructed to stop approving, insuring, guaranteeing, securitizing, or otherwise facilitating the sale of single-family homes to large institutional investors when those homes could otherwise be purchased by families. Federal housing programs will now be steered toward individual owner-occupants — not hedge funds.
The administration is also rolling out “first-look” policies that give families and non-institutional buyers the first chance to purchase foreclosed properties before investors swoop in. New disclosure requirements and anti-circumvention rules are aimed at stopping Wall Street firms from gaming the system.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been tasked with reviewing existing rules governing how large investors acquire or hold single-family homes, with an eye toward tightening them. At the same time, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission will step up scrutiny of institutional buying sprees, including potential antitrust violations tied to coordinated pricing or vacancy strategies in local rental markets.
HUD will also demand greater transparency, requiring owners of single-family rentals tied to federal housing assistance programs to disclose who really owns and controls those properties — flushing out large institutional players hiding behind shell companies.
The White House will go a step further, preparing legislative recommendations to lock these policies into law and prevent future administrations from reversing course.
The administration says the move is a direct response to years of housing pain felt by American families. High inflation and soaring interest rates under the Biden administration pushed starter homes out of reach for millions, while Wall Street investors snapped up available inventory, shrinking supply and driving prices higher. Entire neighborhoods, once filled with owner-occupied homes, were turned into investor-owned rental portfolios.
Trump’s housing push doesn’t stop there. He has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities in an effort to push borrowing costs lower. The White House says the executive order fulfills Trump’s campaign promise to immediately take steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.
Officials also point to broader economic moves aimed at easing the squeeze on families. Upon taking office, Trump blocked unfinalized Biden-era regulations, saving the average household an estimated $2,100. He signed the Working Families Tax Cuts into law, delivering what the administration calls the largest tax cut in American history and boosting take-home pay for typical families by more than $10,000.
Combined with a pro-growth, energy-first, deregulatory agenda, the White House says inflation, mortgage rates, and gas prices are falling, GDP growth is rising, and trillions in new investment are flowing into the U.S.
The message behind the executive order is blunt and unmistakable: the American Dream of homeownership belongs to families — not Wall Street.
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