National Association of REALTORS® leaders voiced measured optimism Wednesday that federal policymakers are taking meaningful steps to address the shortage of single-family homes for sale.
Saying “the American dream has been increasingly out of reach for too many of our citizens, especially first-time home buyers,” President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday “to preserve the supply of single-family homes for American families and increase the paths to homeownership.” The president also addressed affordability in his speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
What President Trump’s Executive Order Does
The executive order’s stated goal is to protect homeownership for American families by addressing a trend in which large investors with deep resources buy up starter and single-family homes. It would do that by barring Wall Street–style investors from buying up single-family homes with government loan products that might otherwise go to individual home buyers, especially first-time buyers and families.
NAR’s Take
The order looks in line with NAR policies that seek research on the issue, call for a definition of “large institutional investors,” and prioritize owner-occupied property, says Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn.
For years, NAR has asked elected leaders at all levels of government to address the intertwined crises of affordability and low inventory of homes for sale. An NAR research report released in November showed that the average age of first-time buyers had reached a new high of 40 and that first-time buyers made up just 21% of the homebuying market between mid-2024 and mid-2025. McGahn called the numbers a warning sign for the middle class and the economy.
Although first-time buyers’ share of the market has rebounded to close to 30%, thanks to lower rates and price adjustments in some markets, it remains historically low. And the challenges for those trying to buy their first home—including a surge in all-cash buyers—remain high. NAR’s Advocacy Group has released a menu of local, state and national solutionspdf that could ease the situation and has advocated for federal incentives to encourage sales to owner-occupants.
Key Actions in President Trump’s Executive Order
The Jan. 20 executive order:
- Calls on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to work with the White House’s economic policy team to define “large institutional investors” and “single-family home” for purposes of implementing the order.
- Directs federal departments and agencies—the Department of Treasury, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration, and Federal Housing Finance Agency—to issue guidance within 60 days to prevent federal programs from facilitating sales of single-family homes to large institutional investors and to promote sales to individual owner-occupants through tactics such as first-look offers, disclosure rules and anti-circumvention steps.
- Instructs Treasury to consider whether there should be revisions in the rules and guidance around the acquisition of single-family homes by large institutional investors and asks the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to determine whether antitrust action should be taken against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies by large institutional investors in single-family rental markets.
There’s a carve-out in the order for build-to-rent properties that are “planned, permitted, financed and constructed as rental communities,” and President Trump leaves a window open for other “narrowly tailored exceptions.”
The Trump administration is preparing proposed legislation that would codify the order into law.
NAR Policy Supports Tax Incentives
NAR data shows that entity purchases have remained relatively stable nationally over the past decade, averaging in the mid-teens. Most of this activity is driven by LLCs; when isolating corporations and companies only, their share was 3.2% in 2024.
Private equity investment in single-family homes has been the subject of debate for several years. Although a large majority of rental-home owners are mom-and-pop landlords or mid-size investors, critics say large entities with the ability to bring cash to the table are edging would-be home buyer out of targeted markets. Several pieces of legislation have been introduced in recent years to discourage the largest investors from growing even bigger by denying some tax benefits that are currently available to them, such as depreciation expense or interest expense deductions.
NAR’s Federal Taxation Committee has studied the issue since 2022, looking at both disincentives that would discourage investment by institutional investors and incentives that would encourage those investors to sell to first-time buyers. Ultimately, NAR leaders approved policy to support two kinds of tax incentives for large investors—one would offer a lower capital gains tax rate on sales to first-time buyers. The other would provide easier use of 1031 like-kind exchanges, extending the 180-day limit on finding a replacement property to three years, so long as the replacement property adds to the housing supply.
A Key Topic for NAR Advocacy Week
The executive order is a hot subject of debate at NAR’s Advocacy Week, which kicked off yesterday. The event draws hundreds of volunteer leaders to Washington, D.C., each year for policy discussions and training.
Capping off Advocacy Week this year is a Jan. 23 policy forum, where industry leaders and policymakers will have candid conversations about affordability now and in the long-term. Watch for coverage in REALTOR® News.
