On the PBD Podcast, the Home Team discusses institutional investors buying single-family homes and competing with traditional homebuyers. GAO says these investors own about 3% of U.S. single-family homes nationally, but their holdings are much more concentrated in certain markets. GAO reviewed 74 studies and found institutional investors may have contributed to higher home prices and rents after entering the single-family market following the 2007–09 foreclosure crisis. Their overall impact on homeownership remains harder to isolate from supply, lending and demographic factors. President Trump signed Executive Order 14376 on January 20, 2026, declaring that large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families. It also directed federal agencies to restrict government support for qualifying acquisitions. Institutional ownership is especially concentrated in some Sun Belt rental markets. GAO found institutional investors owned 22% of Jacksonville’s single-family rental homes in 2024, while their share of all single-family homes in the metro remained about 3%.
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