{"id":136761,"date":"2026-01-16T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136761\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:39:07","slug":"echoing-trump-newsom-vows-crackdown-on-corporate-homebuying-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136761\/","title":{"rendered":"Echoing Trump, Newsom vows crackdown on corporate homebuying in California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his final State of the State speech<\/a>, Gov. Newsom took aim at a group that some say contribute to California\u2019s housing affordability crisis: corporate landlords.<\/p>\n

Newsom vowed to take a tougher stance toward institutional investors \u2014 such as hedge funds and private equity groups \u2014 that buy up hundreds or thousands of homes in order to rent them out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s shameful that we allow private equity firms in Manhattan to become some of the biggest landlords in many of our cities,\u201d he said, adding that the practice crushes the dream of home ownership and raises rents for Californians.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly which form the crackdown will take.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next few weeks, we will work with the Legislature to combat this monopolistic behavior, strengthen accountability, and level the playing field for working families,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means more oversight and enforcement, and potentially changing the state tax code to make this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rare moment of political alignment between Newsom and President Trump, who vowed a similar directive in a January post<\/a> on Truth Social in which he announced immediate steps to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes.<\/p>\n

The post sent shockwaves<\/a> through the market, lowering stock prices of corporate housing giants such as Invitation Homes and Blackstone Inc., but no specific actions have been announced.<\/p>\n

In California\u2019s case, Newsom will have to work with the state legislature. As of now, the bill that most closely aligns with the initiative is AB 1240<\/a>, which seeks to ban investors that own at least 1,000 single-family properties from buying any more homes in order to rent them out.<\/p>\n

The bill, which was introduced by Assemblymember Alex Lee, passed the state Assembly last year but stalled after fierce opposition from real estate agents and the California Apartment Association. It currently awaits a Senate committee hearing.<\/p>\n

Institutional investment in real estate became a focal point during the pandemic, when low interest rates sent the housing market into a frenzy, and first-time homebuyers competed with investors viewing the house as an asset, not a home. During the second quarter of 2021, 23% of home sales in L.A. County went to investors<\/a> rather than someone wanting to live there.<\/p>\n

But data shows that corporate ownership makes up a much smaller share of the market. Analysis from the California Research Bureau<\/a> showed that 2.8% of single-family homes in the Golden State are owned by companies that own at least 10 properties.<\/p>\n

The biggest chunk of that appears to be smaller mom-and-pop landlords rather than giant corporations. Roughly 80,000 homes are owned by companies with more than 100 properties, while nearly 235,000 homes are owned by companies with 10-49 properties.<\/p>\n

Still, renters across the state have faced problems with institutional investors In 2024, Invitation Homes, the largest corporate landlord in California with more than 11,000 homes, agreed to pay $20 million<\/a> to resolve allegations of unpermitted renovations. That same year, the company agreed to pay $48 million<\/a> to settle allegations of unfair eviction practices and withheld security deposits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his final State of the State speech, Gov. Newsom took aim at a group that some say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1804,69585,69587,66769,69588,1073,69582,69586,69584,5990,3290,7790,59150,69583],"class_list":["post-136761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-company","tag-corporate-homebuying","tag-corporate-landlord","tag-crackdown","tag-echoing-trump","tag-home","tag-institutional-investor","tag-invitation-homes","tag-january-post","tag-market","tag-newsom","tag-real-estate-agent","tag-single-family-home","tag-single-family-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}