Merkley and Hawley introduce bipartisan bill to tax hedge funds out of housing market

Senators Jeff Merkley and Josh Hawley introduced bipartisan legislation in February 2026 combining a ban on large institutional investors buying single-family homes with a $5,000 annual per-home penalty on hedge funds that fail to divest existing portfolios over ten years. The legislation also imposed a 15 percent sale-price tax on hedge funds buying additional homes. The bills targeted institutional investors who had purchased over 500,000 single-family homes since 2012, raising rents and purchase prices.