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Putting aside whether or not discouraging investment makes sense as a strategy, it is absolutely wild that this is specific to single family homes. Apartments are unaffordable as well and they are also often owned by funds.

Are people who live in apartments just out of luck then? Discouraging investors from owning single family homes could encourage more speculation on multifamily homes.

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The price of rent roughly tracks the price of a mortgage, and apartments are only about 20% of all homes. If this legislation passes, and home prices go down, then rental prices for homes will go down, and apartment rental prices will need to match those price reductions to attract renters.

They are somewhat opposite: rents go down when everyone wants to (and can) buy, they go up when people don’t want to (or cannot) buy. This is just a short term effect, long term rents should track home values.

I see this bill as a no-op: Wall Street will continue to invest in multi-family rental buildings, as it always has, and SFH purchases were always somewhat of a side show.

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