President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that seeks to place guardrails on institutional investors buying single-family homes.
But do big buyers really compete with the average American who is looking to buy a home, and where are they most active?
Large investor activity has been falling off since 2022; it dropped by 13.5 percent to 19,800 home purchases year over year as of Q2 of 2025, according to the latest data available from Realtor.com. Meanwhile, home buying by small investors has grown, accounting for 62.5 percent of investor purchases over the same time period — the second-highest share in the data’s history.
That quarter, investor purchases made up nearly 11 percent of home buys across the U.S. The number of investor-purchased homes fell by 2.7 percent year over year to about 136,000, but the second quarter saw a drop in home sales overall, leading to a slightly greater share of investor-buyers year over year, according to data from Realtor.com.
However, for the first half of 2025, investor purchases dropped by 1.8 percent year over year.
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The states with the greatest shares of investor-buyers in the second quarter were: Missouri (18.9 percent), Mississippi (17.1 percent) and Nevada (15.4 percent). The states with the lowest share were: Oregon (5.3 percent), Washington (5.7 percent) and New Hampshire (6.2 percent).
In general, investors bought more than they sold in the second quarter, and their median purchase price was about 22 percent lower than the median U.S. home price.
Investor activity differs on the market as well. For instance, investors looking for steady cash flow have been eyeing areas with lower purchase prices, older housing stock and higher rent-to-price ratios. Investors will pay above the median home price when they have an appreciation-oriented strategy; they tend to focus on areas with tight supply and strong competition.
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The metros where investors are paying much less than the median homebuyer are Detroit (-58 percent), Pittsburgh (-52.7 percent) and Baltimore (-52 percent). Meanwhile, investors are paying much more than the median home price in Los Angeles (19.8 percent), San Diego (9.2 percent) and New York (8.7 percent).
The goal of Trump’s order is in its title, “Stopping Wall Street From Competing with Main Street Homebuyers.” Institutional investors like private equity firms and real estate investment trusts typically snap up large swathes of single-family homes to rent them out. But inflation, elevated interest rates and sky-high home prices have made buying difficult for the typical homebuyer, and some believe investor buyers contribute to these rising home prices.
“People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump said on social media earlier this month.
The directives in Trump’s executive order include:
- Directing federal agencies to stop facilitating institutional investors from buying single-family homes, including banning selling government-owned homes to these firms and prioritizing sales to individual owner-occupants;
- tasking the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission with reviewing financial rules and antitrust laws to combat anti-competitive behavior;
- requiring detailed disclosure of corporate ownership for rental properties that participate in federal programs and codifying these changes and mandates.
Click to view the full text of the executive order:
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