Housing Affordability and Policy

NPR reports that President Donald Trump has proposed banning large institutional investors from buying additional single-family homes, framing it as a way to ease housing costs for families locked out of ownership during the investor-driven buying surge of the past several years. The piece details how Fishers, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, just implemented a first‑in‑the‑nation ordinance capping rentals at 10% of homes in each neighborhood after city data showed some subdivisions where 35–38% of houses were owned by investors, often out‑of‑state corporations. Republican Mayor Scott Fadness says investor dominance was squeezing would‑be owner‑occupants, prompting tactics like city employees begging sellers not to accept all‑cash investor offers, and that distant corporate ownership made code enforcement and neighborhood issues harder to manage. Realtor and business groups fought the cap as an infringement on property rights and seller choice, but the council passed it unanimously, and the law took effect Jan. 1, 2026. The story also notes that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has joined Trump in vowing to act against Wall Street‑backed landlords, even as housing economists caution that institutional investors are only one driver of high prices and that constraining them alone won’t fix a national shortage of homes.