Reps. Summer Lee, Emilia Sykes Reintroduce HOMES Act to Crack Down on Corporate Investors Buying Up Local Homes and Driving Up Housing Prices 

**For Immediate Release**  

SummerLeePress@mail.house.gov  

Reps. Summer Lee, Emilia Sykes Reintroduce HOMES Act to Crack Down on Corporate Investors Buying Up Local Homes and Driving Up Housing Prices  

PITTSBURGH, PA – JULY 10, 2025 — Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) and Congresswoman Emilia Sykes (OH-13) reintroduced the Houses Over Middle-Class Exploitation Schemes (HOMES) Act – formerly known as the Stop Predatory Investing Act – to restrict tax breaks for big corporate investors that buy up homes, often driving up local housing prices and rents. This legislation would prohibit an investor who acquires 50 or more single-family rental homes from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties. The bill restricts tax breaks for private equity and large investors that currently give them an advantage in the market for affordable single-family homes, and helps make homeownership a reality for more families across the country. 

“Every single day in Western PA, I hear from families who are being pushed out of their neighborhoods and priced out of their dreams of homeownership because these giant corporate landlords are snatching up homes just to turn a profit,” said Rep. Lee. “Housing is supposed to be a human right – not a way for wealthy investors who don’t even live here to line their pockets while our communities fight for stable, safe homes. The HOMES Act is about putting people over profits and protecting working families from being exploited in this disastrous housing crisis. Our communities deserve real neighbors, not faceless corporations treating homes in our neighborhoods like their personal stock portfolios.” 

“With home prices continuing to soar, many Ohioans are struggling to afford homeownership and some are being priced out of the neighborhoods they’ve lived in all of their lives. It’s unfair for homeowners to have to compete with deep-pocketed investors who are adding to their real estate portfolios, meanwhile they drive up rents and reduce the housing supply while receiving generous tax breaks,” said Rep. Sykes. “My bill would prevent corporate landlords from driving up local home prices and restore power to working people who want to buy a home to live and raise their families in.”   

Private equity firms and other Wall Street-backed investors are becoming an increasing problem in Pittsburgh’s housing market, making homeownership harder to achieve for many working families. From 2010 to 2021, the share of houses sold to corporate entities or real estate investors in the City of Pittsburgh rose from 15.5% to 24.8% of all sales, while these investors often paid a fraction of what regular homebuyers paid. In the rest of Allegheny County, the share similarly jumped from 9.7% to 18% during the same period. Large investors use technology and all-cash offers to outcompete individual buyers, and because they often target the same affordable starter homes sought by first-time homebuyers, they push local families out of the housing market and reduce opportunities for building generational wealth. 

The HOMES Act is endorsed by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and National Housing Law Project (NHLP). 

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.