Trump in Davos: ‘America will not become a nation of renters’
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Donald Trump blamed Biden-era policies and high interest rates for worsening housing affordability while highlighting the tension between tackling the problem and protecting homeowners’ wealth.
During a lengthy address Wednesday, Trump briefly outlined plans to curb institutional investment in single-family homes as part of his broader populist economic message.
Much of the speech focused on demands over Greenland and assailed NATO and European leaders. But Trump also told global politicians, business and tech leaders that he would ask Congress to pass legislation banning Wall Street investment in housing, arguing that it unfairly squeezes out regular Americans.
“Homes are built for people, not for corporations, and America will not become a nation of renters,” Trump said.
He blamed the Biden administration for high interest rates and inflation that he said drove up home prices. He also said the “mass invasion of our borders” had contributed to rising housing costs but suggested he does not want to impact prices to the degree that home values decline.
“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt the value (for) people that own a house,” Trump said.
Trump reiterated the White House’s $200 billion plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy mortgage-backed securities to lower mortgage rates. He also mentioned a proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year so households would have more money for down payments.
While Trump’s remarks were aimed at a global audience, they may resonate in Georgia, particularly metro Atlanta, a national hot spot for institutional investment in housing.
The executive order the president signed Tuesday directs federal agencies to stop enabling institutional purchases of single-family homes and prioritize owner-occupants, focusing on programs tied to the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, government-sponsored enterprises, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The order bars the government from “insuring, guaranteeing, securitizing, or facilitating” those purchases.
It also instructs the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize bulk purchases by large investors and prioritize antitrust enforcement against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies in the rental market.
The order includes an exception for build-to-rent properties.
Trump said he would ask Congress to codify legislation to ensure the policy extends beyond his administration.
Georgia’s Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have cautiously welcomed the announcement. In a letter Tuesday, Warnock and Sen. Tammy Baldwin urged Trump to live up to his promises by pushing Republicans to pass similar legislation called the Stop Predatory Investing Act.
“In Atlanta, private equity owns roughly 25% of the single-family rental housing market — that kind of corporate greed is squeezing first-time homebuyers out of the market and pushing the American Dream further out of reach,” Warnock said in a statement.
The National Rental Home Council, an industry group, said single-family rental providers make up a small portion of the housing market and are not to blame for the housing shortage.
“Our country needs more housing investment,” the group said. “We look forward to working with the administration and policymakers to expand rental options and create real pathways to homeownership.”
Some real estate experts have questioned whether Trump’s proposals will meaningfully improve affordability. Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather has said banning corporate landlords could slow new housing development and that policymakers should instead focus on increasing supply.
Experts estimate the national housing shortage is in the range of 3 to 5 million.
Taylor Shelton, an associate professor of geosciences at Georgia State University, said the executive order may be too little, too late. He said similar policies might have had more impact 10 to 15 years ago, when federal agencies facilitated investor ownership.
“It’s unclear that federal agencies or the government-sponsored enterprises are continuing to play any real role in expanding corporate landlord holdings,” Shelton said, adding that the order is unlikely to undo damage that’s already been done.
Shelton said the policy could help some first-time buyers but offers no relief to renters in corporate-owned properties and does little to repair harm from institutional ownership over the past decade.
Trump has floated other ideas in his second term, including 50-year mortgages, portable mortgages and allowing people to withdraw money from their 401(k) plans to cover down payments. Some experts have greeted those proposals with skepticism.
About the Author
Matt Reynolds is a housing reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's local government team.
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