PESP’s Bankson comments to The News & Observer about bill limiting corporate landlord homes in Charlotte, the Triangle and more of NC

In the “first such proposal aimed at combating the growth of Wall Street-backed firms that have converted tens of thousands of homes to rentals across the country over the past decade,” Democratic lawmakers in some of North Carolina’s fastest growing cities introduced the Home Ownership Market Manipulation Act to cap — at 100 — the number of single-family homes that people or businesses can buy in the state’s most populous counties.

The News & Observer, February 23, 2023: Bill would limit corporate landlord homes in Charlotte, the Triangle and more of NC

The News & Observer wrote that “While the proposal introduced in the North Carolina legislature would stop future purchases by companies that reached the cap, it would not require companies to sell the single-family homes they already own.”

PESP’s housing research coordinator Madeline Bankson told the News & Observer:  “Progress and Invitation Homes would keep their portfolios.” 

Dealing with that existing ownership, Bankson said, might make more sense on the federal level. But they called the state-level proposal in North Carolina “really fantastic.” 

“It really gets to the root of the problem in a way that a lot of other policies don’t,” they said. “The problem is consolidation of ownership to the point where there is an imbalance of power — local companies and families just can’t compete.”

“It gets the conversation going, if nothing else,” Bankson said. “It motivates people to start asking questions about what’s going on in the housing system and, to some extent, start pushing for change.”