Also in January, the president signed an executive order directing federal agencies to cease facilitating ”the acquisition by a large institutional investor of a single-family home that could otherwise be purchased by an individual owner-occupant."
On the state level, one Republican lawmaker is backing what he concedes is a long-shot effort to address concerns about investors and corporations buying up local neighborhoods.
Ohio state Sen. Louis Blessing, R-Colerain Twp., introduced legislation to tax LLCs that simultaneously own more than 50 homes. The law, if passed, would not apply to apartments or non-profit organizations, Blessing said.
His idea: Owners hitting the 50-plus-property threshold would face a tax that might “force them to cough up their portfolio,” the Cincinnati-area Republican said. The bill would not allow owners to mask ownership or hide behind multiple LLCs or LLC names.
“The net effect is they would be forced to sell their homes,” Blessing told the Dayton Daily News. “You can’t just hoard homes like that.”
‘A lot of landlords’ are lawmakers
Essentially two versions of the bill, currently known as Senate Bill 28, have been introduced in Ohio General Assemblies since about March 2023, Blessing said.
“It’s been going on for a while,” he said. “It’s wild that Trump says something, and Republicans are like, ‘Wow, we need to look at this.’”
But he added: “I’m tickled pink that Trump is tweeting about this.”
Blessing doesn’t expect his bill to pass. The legislation had a first hearing in the Senate Housing Committee last year. In a January interview, Blessing said he thinks it may get a second hearing, but he said he would be “stunned” if it passed.
“There are a lot of landlords in the General Assembly, and I think a lot of them own more than 50 properties,” he said.
A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland examines trends in seven counties — Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Summit and Montgomery counties in Ohio, as well as Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.
In 2024, Summit County around Akron saw 33% of single-family homes in census hotspots identified as investor-owned. Lucas County, home to Toledo, had 31% of single-family homes in hotspots owned by investors.
In Montgomery County, the hotspot percentage was 30%
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