WASHINGTON — The Senate passed on a bipartisan basis a bill barring Wall Street investors from buying up single-family homes, sending the legislation back to the House where it faces an uphill battle before reaching President Trump’s desk.
Senators in a 89-10 vote adopted provisions from the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that were tucked into an already-passed House measure, meaning it will have to return to the lower chamber for final approval.
The new bill would reduce regulations related to environmental reviews as well as construction, and create new block grant programs for building units as well as affordable housing. The bipartisan effort is designed to drive down housing costs as part of the broader affordability agenda.
So-called institutional investors such as Blackstone, which is one of the largest owners of single-family units, would also be prohibited from buying family homes.
The package was co-authored by Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“This is a bill about increasing supply, and anybody who wants to try to block this bill is going to have to explain to the American people why they don’t want to see us build more housing — and have that housing in the hands of homeowners,” Warren said on the floor.
In a floor speech before the vote, Scott said housing should be a bipartisan issue that’s “about helping moms like the one that raised me,” who didn’t become a homeowner until the age of 38 while raising two boys as a single parent in a 700-square-foot rental property.
“Today, the average age of a first time homebuyer is 40,” added Scott, “40 years old, before you ever experience the American Dream, that age is too old.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) opposed the bill as too lefty.
“My God, when did conservative Republicans start carrying Elizabeth Warren’s banner on housing strategy?” Tillis said, per HuffPost.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.) has already come out in opposition to the bill, though, suggesting in an interview with Politico that “it’s not going to be the way the Senate is going to send it over to the House.”
Some conservative GOP lawmakers have dubbed the Trump-backed provision banning institutional investors from owning homes a “socialist” policy, while others disagreed with additional banking provisions governing the Federal Reserve being halted from issuing digital currency.
Trump first called on Congress in January to pass legislation stopping investors from scooping up homes. He later signed an executive order demanding the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize Wall Street purchases of single-family homes “for anti-competitive effects.”
The announcement caused shares of Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Invitation Homes, the largest renter of single-family units nationwide, to dip several percentage points.
A Blackstone rep told The Post in February that its home ownership made up just 2% of the real estate assets in the US and that the firm has sold more homes than it purchased over the last decade.
Wall Street investment firms bought up housing in bulk amid mass foreclosures during the 2008 financial crisis.
