Lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices
Wall Street went on a home-buying spree. Now, more lawmakers want to stop it from ever happening again.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House have sponsored legislation that would force large owners of single-family homes to sell houses to family buyers. A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.
Lawmakers in Nebraska, California, New York, Minnesota and North Carolina are among those proposing similar laws.
While homeowner associations for years have sought to stop investors from buying and renting out houses in their neighborhoods, the legislative proposals represent a new effort by elected officials to regulate Wall Street’s appetite for single-family homes.
These lawmakers say that investors that have scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are contributing to the dearth of homes for sale and driving up home prices. They argue that investor buying has made it harder for first-time buyers to compete with Wall Street-backed investment firms and their all-cash offers.
A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.
That’s how you know this is a truly desperate situation. Republicans want to raise taxes on corporations.
I know nothing about Ohio specifically, but some Republicans in state legislature aren’t completely brain dead or MAGA.
I am going to hop onto my soap box for a minute and say if we want high quality US politicians, we need to better compensate State legislature roles. In Ohio they make 68k, which isn’t great, but maybe liveable in Ohio. Looking up CT as a random example, they just bumped the pay from 28k to 40k two years ago and their staffers still earn 2 to 3x their pay.
That’s ridiculous. It means only rich people or people funded by rich people can afford to run for state legislature. This doesn’t even get into local politics where selectman can earn like 12k yearly… if we want more normal down to earth politicians, we need to fund this shit better.
No, but they’re still conservatives, which means they will only act in their own self-interest.
All humans act in what they think is there self-interest. Nothing to do with any political leaning.
Found the conservative!
If I’m the only conservetive you know then your circle has a serious lack of diversity.
I make a point of not knowing conservatives.
I hate modern journalism
here’s the senate bill they’re talking about https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2224?s=1&r=92
It’s a very weak bill, only kicks in at over 50 homes purchased, is not retroactive so existing damage to the market is unaffected, and only affects taxes on interest. Plus a lot of other restrictions to make sure this doesnt affect rental properties at all. Frankly I think this bill is meant to make more affordable property for landlords than anything.
They’ll just spin up shell companies to bypass that 50 limit
I’m in NY and I literally have to quit my job and start over in another state because as it is right now there is literally 0 chance I ever own a home here… I’ve watched prices double in less than 4 years, it’s absolutely disgusting…
That’s not really true. Depending on where you live in NY, prices are very affordable. Also, NYC has neighborhoods that are also affordable.
You mentioned that “prices double in less than 4 years”. What happened 4 years ago? People left the city during Covid. Yes, that meant prices went down, but a lot of sellers pulled places off the market too. There was very few available places, so it’s not a valid point of comparison.
I don’t live in or near NYC, and you’d have to define affordable because I’ve been looking all over and I can’t find anything in the 200k range that is anywhere close to available work. Unfortunately I’m not someone who has the luxury to WFH. This market is absolutely killing people like myself that don’t have the WFH option.
I have no idea where you’re looking, but I just looked at Syracuse (chosen at random). There are tons of places available under $200K. Are you even looking?
Syracuse NY is a shit hole. The reason prices are cheap there is because people are fleeing and no one wants to live there.
So basically if you want an affordable house you have to move some where no one wants to live.
Our HOA made it much harder for corporate raider types to buy and rent houses in our neighborhood. Took a lot of legwork and paying a lawyer to get the changes passed. Was well worth it, though. Sleep better at night.
I’ve mentioned this before on Lemmy, and a few pious Ackshualemmys felt the compulsion to preach about how this was just a move to keep home prices up. But it really wasn’t. The legal language still allows individual families to rent their homes if they want to. But it strictly limits how many corporate / institutional type landlords can be in the neighborhood.
My main point here is: as much as most of us hate HOAs (including me)…if you have an HOA think about leveraging it to help slow this corporate creep of mass home buying.
My problem with HOA’s is that they seem to have no accountability if a power tripping asshole is in charge. If HOA’s lost the ability to put leans on properties and was just an organization that neighbors joined of their own volition, it might be better
Then again, if they don’t have that power then they can’t do what your HOA did.
I will NEVER live in another HOA community. To your point, it just takes a few dicks to ruin it for everyone. Sold my house to an institutional investor just to get out of one. Everyone peering out their blinds, ready to speed, dial the gastopo if a car they dont recognize appears at someone else’s residence. The 6am geriatric weed police making sure everyone’s lawns are mowed at 90’ angles. Can’t have a work truck in your own driveway, gotta repaint your house every 10 years now you wanna tell me who I can and can’t unload this paper house to? Get bent. Communities usually full of big truck, clean bed freedom lovers too.
How to tell they’ve almost bought everything they can already.
