Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has partnered with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) on two bills aiming to prevent hedge funds and other companies from buying single-family homes. Such purchases would now come with new penalties.
One of the bills, called the Humans over Private Equity (HOPE) for Homeownership Act, would make any buyer with a net worth of at least $50 million pay a tax equal to 15% of a home’s purchase price to acquire it. Hawley said the law should distinguish between firms and families.
"You’ve gotta be able to define those things – to differentiate – and I think you can I think most people, it’s a common sense thing, people know the difference between their neighbors who are trying to buy their first house and some investment firm from New York that’s coming in to buy the house before they do and then make them renters."
Hawley said his goal with the bill is to increase home access for more families.
"I just think that it is so perverse – and I think – to take away the ability of a local family in Missouri to buy their first home, to be able to give their kids a yard to play in and a place to call their own, I just think that that’s wrong, we wanna say that family homes are for families, not for banks."
The other bill, called the Homes for American Families Act, would define the purchase of a home by investment or insurance companies or with at least $150 million under management as a violation of anti-trust law.
