Homeownership has long been described as the cornerstone of the American Dream, and it became a national talking point during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
President Trump highlighted a Houston mother who said she lost 20 bids on homes to large investment firms paying cash.
“She placed bids on 20 homes and lost all of those bids to gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream,” the President said.
He announced he signed an executive order banning large Wall Street investment firms from buying thousands of single-family homes and is now urging Congress to make the ban permanent.
But how much of Harris County’s housing market is actually controlled by large corporate investors?
According to data from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, about nine major national investment firms own roughly 11,000 single-family homes in Harris County approximately 1% of the county’s nearly one million single-family properties.
“So when you look at all of the single-family homes in Harris County, there’s about a million — only about 1% are owned by the largest national investors,” said Steve Sherman with the Kinder Institute. “About nine companies own roughly 11,000 homes.”
Researchers say that while the overall share is relatively small, those properties are more concentrated in certain suburban communities, including Cypress, Katy, Humble and Spring.
Even so, housing experts caution that affordability pressures extend far beyond corporate ownership.
The Kinder Institute’s 2025 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston report found:
- Home prices and rents have increased faster than wages.
- More households are spending over 30% of their income on housing — the federal threshold for being considered cost-burdened.
- The gap between what residents earn and what they need to afford a home continues to widen.
In other words, even if large investors are not purchasing most homes in Harris County, many families are still struggling to compete in a market shaped by higher interest rates, rising prices and limited inventory.
“Interest rates are a lot higher than they were six years ago,” Sherman said. “It was a really good time if you had enough money for a down payment when the pandemic was going on. If you missed that window of opportunity, it’s a lot harder now.”
Housing advocates argue that limiting large-scale investors could ease competition in certain neighborhoods. But researchers say affordability challenges are complex — influenced by supply shortages, population growth, construction costs and financing conditions.
As the policy debate continues in Washington, the data suggests that in Harris County, the affordability crisis is driven by more than just corporate buyers leaving many first-time homebuyers still searching for their opportunity.