Warren Presses Pulte, Turner on Their Failure to Follow Through on President Trump's Executive Order to Curb Wall Street Ownership of Single-Family Housing

Warren Presses Pulte, Turner on Their Failure to Follow Through on President Trump's Executive Order to Curb Wall Street Ownership of Single-Family Housing

"Despite the President's stated support in his State of the Union for limiting private equity's ownership of housing, it appears that your agencies are taking steps to further entrench private equity and large corporate landlords across the housing market."

Text of letter (PDF)

Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, wrote to Bill Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and Scott Turner, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), detailing her concerns that their agencies have not taken action to curb the role of institutional investors in the housing market following President Trump's Executive Order 14376 and the historic bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act's becoming law.

"Congress recently passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (ROAD), which restricts Wall Street and private equity firms from buying up single-family homes. While ROAD takes a strong first step toward returning homeownership opportunities to the American people, there is more that HUD and FHFA can and should do to limit the role of large institutional investors in housing, including in multifamily and manufactured housing," wrote Ranking Member Warren. "As large institutional investors engage in rent gouging, poor maintenance practices, and violations of landlord-tenant and fair housing laws, it is critical that the Administration act to hold these corporate landlords accountable."

Senator Warren described how FHFA and HUD are actually entrenching private equity and large corporate landlords in the housing market: "In recent months, HUD has made it easier for large institutional investors to purchase foreclosed homes by watering down rules that gave individual buyers priority access. Specifically, HUD eliminated the 30-day purchasing period reserved for owner-occupant buyers, nonprofits, and local government agencies … as a result, individual homebuyers are again forced to compete directly with big investors and private equity firms -increasing the likelihood that large institutional investors will acquire homes financed with taxpayer-insured mortgages."

The Ranking Member emphasized that FHFA and HUD have to meet their responsibility to stop allowing private equity to buy up single-family homes. Federal sales and backing of corporate-owned housing have contributed to our continuing affordability crisis and the harms experienced by consumers across the country - and you have taken no steps to change course on this damaging track record. Your agencies must take steps to undo these harmful actions that have promoted, rather than prevented, private equity ownership of homes … on January 20, 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled, 'Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers,'" which also directed HUD and FHFA to prevent the sale of single-family houses to large investors … Your agencies must take steps to implement these directives."

The Ranking Member concluded with a list of questions for the agencies and requested responses by September 14, 2026.

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