Great News! Housing First!

A Positive Step, and the Work That Must Follow

Just as I was writing about the attack on American family homeownership, Donald Trump announced plans to limit equity firms from buying up American homes. A huge surprise as Trump, Obama, and Biden have all supported the creation of the International Equity firms buying up American homes. That being said…

This is a positive development  and it deserves to be recognized as such.

The economic health of the American family is the single most important indicator of the health of the American economy. When families are struggling to afford housing, food, and stability, the economy is not strong no matter what the stock market says. We cannot keep people trapped in a permanent state of economic vulnerability and still call it prosperity.

For years, large equity firms have been targeting starter homes:

• Outbidding families with cash
  
• Driving prices higher and higher
  
• Turning ownership into permanent rent

That pressure didn’t stop at housing.

As housing costs exploded:

• Families had less money for food
  
• More people were forced onto SNAP
  
• Social Security was stretched thinner
  
• The idea of a “living wage” became impossible
  

You cannot have a healthy economy when housing eats everything.

So absolutely yes, limiting equity firms is the right direction.

But if we stop there, it won’t be enough.

What Must Come Next 

If we are serious about protecting American families, the policy must go further, and it must be designed so it cannot be gamed.

1. Liquidate Large Housing Equity Firms’ Home Stock

Equity firms distort the market.

We must:

• Require large housing investment firms to sell off their single-family home inventories
  
• Phase it over time to avoid chaos
  
• Prioritize sales to owner-occupants, not other investors
  

Homes taken off the market by Wall Street need to be returned to families.

2. Limit How Many Homes One Family Can Own

Homeownership should be for living, not hoarding.

A reasonable rule:

• Limit ownership to 3–4 homes per household
  
• Allow exemptions for:
  
  • Buying homes for children or elderly parents
    
  • Temporary hardship situations

Protect families while stopping accumulation that turns housing into a monopoly.

3. Block Corporate Workarounds and LLC Shell Games

Rules don’t work if they can be bypassed with paperwork.

We must:

• Prohibit umbrella corporations from nesting dozens of LLCs underneath them
  
• Treat affiliated entities as one owner
  
• Require full transparency on beneficial ownership

If one company controls 500 homes through 100 LLCs, that’s still one company.

4. Give Owner-Occupants First Access, Always

Before investors get a chance, families should.

A simple, fair rule:

• Homes must be on the market for at least 3 months
  
• During that time, sales are restricted to owner-occupied buyers
  
• Only after that window can non-occupant buyers bid

Think of it like a church picnic:

You make sure everyone gets a plate before anyone goes back for seconds.

5. If Prices Drop, Bail Out Families, Not Banks

The last time housing dropped in prices, they bailed out the banks, not families.

If these reforms lower housing prices, some homeowners may end up upside-down on their mortgages.

The solution is not another bank bailout.

Instead:

• Adjust mortgages to reflect new fair values
  
• Keep families in their homes
  
• Protect primary residences first

We stabilize households, not balance sheets.

Banks can absorb losses.

Families cannot.

6. Give Renters the First Right to Buy the Homes They Live In

If a home is being sold, the family already living there should have the first chance to buy it.

Policy framework:

• When a rental home is listed for sale, the current renter gets first right of refusal
  
• The renter has a defined window (for example, 60–90 days) to purchase
  
• Government-backed, low-interest owner-occupant loans should be available to help them qualify
  
• If the renter declines, the home then follows the normal owner-occupant-first rules

This turns renters into homeowners instead of pushing them out.

This Matters

The attack on American families is grounded in the attack on American family homeownership.

When families can’t own homes:

• Living wages disappear into rent
  
• Food insecurity rises
  
• Government dependency increases
  
• Communities fracture

You cannot fix SNAP, Social Security, or wages without fixing housing first.

Housing is the foundation everything else sits on.

The Bottom Line

Limiting equity firms from buying homes is a good start.

But real reform means:

• Breaking up concentration
  
• Closing loopholes
  
• Putting families first in line
  
• Protecting homeowners during the transition

Homes should be for living first, investing second.

If we get housing right, a lot of other problems get smaller very fast.