Current:Home > ScamsNebraska lawmaker seeks to ban corporations from buying up single-family homes-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Nebraska lawmaker seeks to ban corporations from buying up single-family homes
View Date:2024-12-23 20:17:11
A Nebraska lawmaker whose north Omaha district has struggled for years with a housing shortage is pushing a bill that, if passed, could make Nebraska the first in the country to forbid out-of-state hedge funds and other corporate entities from buying up single-family properties.
Sen. Justin Wayne’s bill echoes legislative efforts in other states and in Congress to curtail corporate amassing of single-family homes, which critics say has helped cause the price of homes, rent and real estate taxes to soar in recent years. Wayne said that has been the case in his district, where an Ohio corporation has bought more than 150 single-family homes in recent years — often pushing out individual homebuyers with all-cash offers. The company then rents out the homes.
Experts say the scarcity of homes for purchase can be blamed on a multitude of factors, including sky-high mortgage interest rates and years of underbuilding modest homes.
Wayne’s bill offers few specifics. It consists of a single sentence that says a corporation, hedge fund or other business may not buy purchase single-family housing in Nebraska unless it’s located in and its principal members live in Nebraska.
“The aim of this is to preserve Nebraska’s limited existing housing stock for Nebraskans,” Wayne said this week at a committee hearing where he presented the bill. “If we did this, we would be the first state in the country to take this issue seriously and address the problem.”
A 14-page bill dubbed the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act has been introduced in both chambers of Congress and would impose a 10-year deadline for hedge funds to sell off the single-family homes they own and, until they do, would saddle those investment trusts with hefty taxes. In turn, those tax penalties would be used to help people put down payments on the divested homes.
Democratic lawmakers in a number of other states have introduced similar bills, including in Minnesota, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas, but those bills have either stalled or failed.
The housing squeeze coming from out-of-state corporate interests isn’t just an Omaha problem, said Wayne Mortensen, director of a Lincoln-based affordable housing developer called NeighborWorks Lincoln.
Mortensen said the recession of 2008 and, more recently, the economic downturn driven by the COVID-19 pandemic made single-family housing a more attractive corporate investment than bond markets.
“When that became the case, housing was commoditized and became just like trading any stock,” he said. “Those outside investors are solely interested in how much value they can extract from the Lincoln housing market.”
Those corporations often invest no upkeep in the homes, he said.
“And as a result of that, we’re seeing incredible dilapidation and housing decline in many of our neighborhoods because of these absentee landlords that have no accountability to the local communities,” Mortensen said.
Currently, about 13% of single-family homes in Lincoln are owned by out-of-state corporate firms, he said.
As in other states, Wayne’s bill likely faces an uphill slog in the deep red state of Nebraska. At Monday’s hearing before the Banking, Insurance and Commerce Committee, several Republican lawmakers acknowledged a statewide housing shortage, but they cast doubt on Wayne’s solution.
“You know, you can set up shell companies, you set up different layers of ownership. You can move your domicile base. There’s just a ton of workarounds here,” Omaha Sen. Brad von Gillern said. “I also — as just as a pure capitalist — fundamentally oppose the idea.”
veryGood! (97789)
Related
- Lala Kent Swears by This Virgo-Approved Accessory and Shares Why Stassi Schroeder Inspires Her Fall Style
- Alexey Navalny, fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, dies in a Russian penal colony, officials say
- Inside Hilary Swank's New Life With Her Million Dollar Babies
- You’ll Choose And Love This Grey’s Anatomy People’s Choice Awards Reunion
- Eva Longoria calls US 'dystopian' under Trump, has moved with husband and son
- Take a Look at the Original Brat Pack Then and Now, Nearly 40 Years After The Breakfast Club
- Michael Strahan's daughter Isabella shares health update after chemo: 'Everything hurts'
- Horoscopes Today, February 17, 2024
- Whoopi Goldberg Shares Very Relatable Reason She's Remained on The View
- To Live and Die in Philadelphia: Sonya Sanders Grew Up Next Door to a Giant Refinery. She’s Still Suffering From Environmental Trauma.
Ranking
- Who is Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman Donald Trump picked to serve as attorney general?
- 'Oppenheimer' wins 7 prizes, including best picture, at British Academy Film Awards
- Russia says it has crushed the last pocket of resistance in Avdiivka to complete the city’s capture
- Simu Liu Reveals the Secret to the People’s Choice Awards—and Yes, It’s Ozempic
- Prosecutors say some erroneous evidence was given jurors at ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial
- Near-record winds over the Northeast push passenger planes to speeds over 800 mph
- Navalny’s widow vows to continue his fight against the Kremlin and punish Putin for his death
- Virginia bank delays plans to auction land at resort owned by West Virginia governor’s family
Recommendation
-
Younghoo Koo takes blame for Falcons loss to Saints: 'This game is fully on me'
-
Here's how long a migraine typically lasts – and why some are worse than others
-
Lenny Kravitz Details His Inspirational Journey While Accepting Music Icon Award at 2024 PCAs
-
NBA All-Star Game again sees tons of points, lack of defense despite call for better competition
-
The NBA Cup is here. We ranked the best group stage games each night
-
All the Candid 2024 People's Choice Awards Moments You Didn't See on TV
-
Ex-YouTube CEO’s son dies at UC Berkeley campus, according to officials, relative
-
We went to more than 20 New York Fashion Week shows, events: Recapping NYFW 2024