California Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for a crackdown on institutional i
nvestors buying up homes in the state during a speech Thursday, following a similar announcement by President Donald Trump.
Newsom plans on saying he will work with local legislators to target private equity and hedge fund investors purc
hasing homes in California, particularly corporate entities buying at scale, the governor’s office said in an email.
“The fact is that large investors are purchasing homes faster than families can buy them,” the governor’s office said. “The governor
believes that working families shouldn’t be competing with large, well-capitalized investors.”
Related: California Bill Would Require Insurer Claims Handling Plans, And Double Penalties
Newsom’s announcement follows a similar measure floated on Wednesday by Trump, marking a rare convergence for the two political rivals. The president said he would b
an institutional investors from buying single-family homes in an effort to address housing affordability.
Trump and Newsom have clashed on issues issues ranging from edu
cation to immigration, with the California governor emerging as one of the president’s top antagonists. Their nearly simultaneous
rebukes of corporate homebuying show how institutional land
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lords have quickly risen to be a favored political punching bag for both Democrats and Republicans.
While California was the birthplace of several institutional buyers of single-family rental homes following the 2
008 financial crisis, the biggest landlords focused more on Sun Belt states, such as
Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, where homes were even less expensive.
Around 3% of California’s single-family homes are owned by large landlords, with publicly traded Invitation Homes being the
largest owner, according to a 2024 study by the California Research Bureau,
a nonpartisan research office. Large institutional landlords own less than
1% of total U.S. single family housing inventory, according to a note from JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts Wednesday.
Trump’s announcement initially knocked down shares of single-family landlords by as much as 10%. Still, the JPMorgan analysts le
d by Anthony Paolone wrote, “At the risk of whistling past the graveyard, we could argue that the dip in the stocks presents a buying opportunity.”