The Affordable Housing and Homeownership Protection Act would help level the playing field for families by taxing investors who purchase and hold more than 15 single-family homes, with the largest investors paying higher rates.
Pass the Affordable Housing and Homeownership Protection Act to tax institutional investors that purchase and hold more than 15 single-family homes, with larger investors paying higher rates.
Occurrences
Evidence
Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Adam Smith announced the bicameral End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023, with Tina Smith listed as a Senate cosponsor. The release says the bill would ban hedge funds from owning single-family homes and force a multiyear sell-down.
The draft bill would impose a 50 percent tax on new single-family-home purchases by covered hedge-fund taxpayers and a $50,000 annual tax on excess single-family residences, with a 10-year phaseout to zero ownership.
The summary repeats the 10-year phaseout, the annual divestment requirement, and a 50 percent tax on the fair market value of future single-family-home purchases by hedge funds.
Assessments
As of June 20, 2026, there is evidence of a serious legislative effort but not of enactment. Tina Smith was a Senate cosponsor of the December 5, 2023 End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023, and the available official materials show a concrete proposal to tax and phase out large institutional ownership of single-family homes. But the record provided shows only introduced or draft legislation, not that the promised policy was passed into federal law. Because Smith is still serving the same Senate term and the term had not yet ended on June 20, 2026, this is better scored as unresolved rather than never.