Proposed Trump Treasury Secretary Promises Landlords Won't Be Forced to Sell
In an announcement that surely brought comfort to the boardrooms of Invitation Homes and Blackstone, Scott Bessent confirmed that Donald Trump’s proposal to prevent large firms from buying single-family homes would be strictly “forward-looking.” This means private equity giants, who have spent the last decade snapping up American housing, driving up rents and pricing out working families, get to
keep their lucrative, inflation-proof assets. BlackRock alone, often cited in criticisms, manages trillions in assets, with significant investments in residential housing through subsidiaries. This isn't just about 'firms'; it's about the financialization of basic human needs, something bipartisan politicians have largely enabled. One might wonder: if the policy acknowledges the problem of
corporations cornering the housing market, why is it so eager to protect the very entities that created the problem in the first place? It appears some 'solutions' are designed more for public relations than genuinely addressing the root causes of housing unaffordability. When policies are crafted to inconvenience only future villains, the current ones get to keep their spoils, laughing all the
way to the bank while aspiring homeowners get laughed out of the market.