Treasury issues proposed regulations to make homeownership more affordable

The Treasury Department announced Thursday a series of regulations that look to bring down the cost of homeownership, including implementing parts of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that Congress passed earlier this year.

Congress passed the legislation over the summer, which President Trump never signed. The law went into effect without the president's signature in July. 

The law includes a section that bans large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes, which codifies one of the president's executive orders that stopped Wall Street investors from competing with regular Americans for homes. 

“Under President Trump, this Administration continues to restore the path to affordable homeownership for millions of young and working families,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “Treasury is working to ensure American families and workers have a fair shot at purchasing homes in their communities by increasing housing supply and limiting large institutional investors’ role in the market, while supporting a strong, stable housing market and avoiding unnecessary disruption.”

The new regulations will go into effect in January, and restrict large institutional investors from purchasing a single-family home unless it qualifies as an “excepted purchase” under federal law.

A large institutional investor is defined as an entity engaged in the business of investing in, owning, renting, managing, or holding single-family homes and has direct or indirect investment control over at least 350 such homes. 

The new regulations come just two weeks ahead of the midterm elections. It also comes the same day the president signed an executive order aimed at lowering single-family homeownership and mortgage costs.

The order directed the Federal Housing Finance Agency to launch a pilot program that proactively cancels mortgage insurance premiums for qualifying borrowers once they meet equity thresholds based on current market values.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.