FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 27, 2025
CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Advocacy Groups Call on Senate to Tax Corporate and Private Equity Landlords
WASHINGTON — Today, 13 housing, economic justice, community, and other advocacy organizations sent a letter to the Senate urging the consideration of Senator Merkley’s HOPE for Homeownership Act during the budget reconciliation debate.
The measure provides an unprecedented opportunity for Senators to use the tax system to fight corporate landlords who are gobbling up the nation’s housing stock, preventing families from buying homes, driving up rents, and amplifying the growing housing affordability crisis.
“Predatory corporate landlords are contributing to the skyrocketing (30 percent) increase in home prices over the past five years, putting homeownership further out of reach for younger families,” said Caroline Nagy, associate director of housing for Americans for Financial Reform. “Corporate landlords are stealing the American dream and opportunity of homeownership for an entire generation of young people. It’s time for the Senate to take a stand against corporate homebuyers by passing the HOPE for Homeownership tax as part of the reconciliation process”
Senator Merkley’s HOPE for Homeownership legislation will penalize hedge funds and private equity firms that hoard single-family homes by requiring corporations, partnerships and real estate investment trusts to either sell all their single-family homes over a 10-year period or face steep taxes. It would establish a new 15 percent tax penalty on the sale price (or $10,000, if greater) for entities buying additional single-family homes, eliminate the depreciation and mortgage interest tax breaks for these buyers, and impose a new $5,000 per home tax penalty for failing to fully sell off their currently owned single-family homes.
“Lack of affordable housing remains an enduring hardship for average Americans, made worse by the recent economic turmoil,” said Chris Noble, policy director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project. “Tenants in single-family rentals continue to struggle under unreasonable rent hikes, and would-be homebuyers continue to be outmaneuvered by deep-pocketed corporate landlords when trying to purchase their first home. By protecting the single-family housing market from private equity and hedge funds, the HOPE Act presents an opportunity to stem the exacerbation of the nation’s housing affordability crisis and preserve the American Dream for working people.”
The HOPE for Homeownership Act addresses the mounting affordability crisis exacerbated by corporate single-family home buyers. Today, half of all tenants spend over 30 percent of their income on rent and more than one-fourth spend over 70 percent of their income. That means saving for a downpayment is extremely difficult, especially since the average home sales price surpassed $500,000 for the first time in U.S. history. Unfortunately, private equity firms and other corporate landlords, flush with cash, can easily outbid and outcompete homebuyers who require mortgage financing and must contend with high interest rates.
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