U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) on Wednesday proposed a bipartisan bill aimed at giving American families the first opportunity to purchase federally backed foreclosed homes ahead of institutional investors and hedge funds that are stockpiling single-family houses and raising prices.
The Families First Housing Act of 2026, H.R. 6962, which Rep. Harrigan sponsored alongside lead original cosponsor U.S. Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY), would strengthen and standardize ‘‘first look’’ protections for covered properties to ensure families and communities have priority access to foreclosed homes.
“People live in homes, not corporations, and institutional investors shouldn’t be locking families out,” Rep. Harrigan said. “The Families First Act, which I introduced with Josh Riley, helps ensure federally backed homes go to families first, not Wall Street.”
The legislation reflects months of work focused on housing affordability and the growing role of large investors in the single-family housing market, according to the congressmen, who noted that federal data shows that as recently as 2011, no investor owned 1,000 or more single-family rental homes nationwide.
By 2015, institutional investors collectively owned an estimated 170,000 to 300,000 homes, a shift that accelerated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In many fast-growing Sunbelt markets, institutional buyers now account for a significant share of single-family home purchases, tightening supply for families, they added.
“Homeownership is slipping out of reach for a lot of Americans, especially young families,” said Rep. Harrigan. “Only about 30 percent of Americans under 35 own a home today, roughly half the rate of a generation ago. That gap didn’t appear overnight, and it’s not because people stopped working hard.
“More and more, families are getting outbid by large financial firms buying up single-family homes at scale,” he added. “In Charlotte, roughly 18 percent of single-family homes and 13 percent of homes in Raleigh were investor-owned as of 2022, a clear example of how quickly institutional buying is reshaping local housing markets, with those numbers continuing to rise.”
If enacted, H.R. 6962 would create a standardized 180-day “first look” period that gives families, nonprofits, local governments, and community land trusts exclusive access to eligible single-family homes owned, foreclosed upon, or under disposition by federal housing entities before institutional investors can purchase them.
The bill also would require public reporting on home sales, pricing methods, and violations, and authorize penalties for employees who unlawfully bypass first-look protections, among other provisions.