Trump restricts Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes
(Reuters) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aiming to stop Wall Street investors from competing with individual homebuyers, the White House said.
“To preserve the supply of single-family homes for American families and increase the paths to homeownership, it is the policy of my Administration that large institutional investors should not buy single-family homes that could otherwise be purchased by families,” Trump said in his order.
Trump, under pressure to address voter affordability concerns ahead of congressional elections this year, has recently pushed a number of major policy proposals aimed at boosting home ownership and reining in living costs. Trump’s order on Tuesday directs his administration to issue guidance within 60 days to impose restrictions on the sale of single-family homes, according to the text of the order released by the White House.
The order also calls for additional steps, including a direction to the Treasury secretary to review the rules and guidance that relate to large institutional investors acquiring or holding single-family homes and consider revising them.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission “shall review substantial acquisitions, including series of acquisitions, by large institutional investors of single-family homes in local single-family housing markets for anti-competitive effects and prioritize enforcement of the antitrust laws, as appropriate, against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies by large institutional investors in local single-family home rental markets,” the order reads.
Wall Street institutions such as Blackstone, American Homes 4 Rent and Progress Residential have bought thousands of single-family homes since the financial crisis of 2008 led to a wave of home foreclosures.
After 4 shark attacks in 48 hours, Australia shuts dozens of beaches
SYDNEY (NYT) — Dozens of beaches in eastern Australia were closed Tuesday, after four shark attacks in a span of 48 hours, a spree that the head of a lifeguard group described as unprecedented.
On Tuesday morning, a surfer was knocked off his board by a shark near Point Plomer Beach, about 200 miles north of Sydney. He was briefly hospitalized with minor injuries, local news media reported.
That episode followed a spate of attacks off the coastline of Sydney, Australia’s largest city.
On Monday evening, a 27-year-old surfer’s leg was bitten by a shark in waters off Manly Beach. Fellow beachgoers administered first aid before the surfer was taken to the hospital with what police described as “life-changing injuries.”
That same day, and just a few miles away, an 11-year-old boy escaped injury after a shark bit his surfboard.
The fourth episode occurred Sunday afternoon, when a shark bit the legs of a boy who was swimming with friends in Sydney’s east. Authorities have said that the boy, who is believed to be 12 or 13 years old, was “fighting for his life.”
More than a dozen beaches in northern Sydney, including Manly and Palm Beach, will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, local authorities said. Farther north, near Point Plomer Beach, authorities have closed several beaches for 24 hours.
Shark attacks are rare in Australia, but this week’s episodes come after a deadly attack in Sydney’s northern beaches in September.