STOP THE THEFT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: HOME OWNERSHIP

The American Dream of homeownership is under immediate, systemic assault from both Wall Street capital and predatory foreign investments, and it requires an urgent, structural policy response before our neighborhoods are permanently stripped from American family property owners. As a retired military officer, former county commissioner, and family man, I have spent decades defending our nation and managing local governance. Today, I am speaking out as a deeply concerned citizen because our domestic housing market has become a global playground: multi-billion-dollar corporate asset managers and government-subsidized foreign buyers are aggressively outbidding our citizens; weaponizing all-cash offers to buy up single-family homes and stripping local families of the ability to build generational wealth.

This is no longer a standard market cycle; it is a multi-front economic invasion that demands immediate regulatory intervention. On one side, everyday Americans attempting to purchase a home are being systematically priced out by Wall Street giants such as Blackstone, BlackRock and others whose capital dominance reshapes entire housing markets. On the other side, our citizens face an even more insidious threat: cash-flush buyers heavily backed and subsidized by the Chinese government, who treat American residential real estate as a secure asset class to park foreign capital. Whether it is an out-of-state corporate board room or a foreign adversary, the result is identical; local families and first-time buyers are instantly locked out by unconditional, all-cash offers they cannot hope to match.

From a national security and economic policy perspective, the consequences of allowing our residential neighborhoods to be monopolized by institutional and foreign interests are catastrophic:

• Artificial Price Inflation: Global and institutional cash injections block natural price discovery, driving home valuations, and in some cases, property taxes completely out of reach for working families.

• The Permanent Renter Trap: By converting single-family homes into permanent rental portfolios, wealth is extracted from our towns and sent to out-of-state corporate balance sheets and foreign accounts.

• Erosion of Civic and Sovereign Stability: Homeowners are stakeholders who invest in schools, local businesses, and community safety; faceless corporate boards and subsidized foreign buyers only answer to foreign interests or quarterly earnings reports. 
  

We cannot address this crisis with passive rhetoric or incremental measures. Congress is currently debating the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which has advanced through both the House and Senate. A critical, bipartisan provision within this federal legislation aims to restrict large institutional investors owning 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing further property. We must demand our federal representatives reconcile these bills without weakening the restrictions on Wall Street and China. At the same time we must aggressively advance federal measures like the proposed tax penalties on foreign nationals from hostile governments purchasing American real estate. 

Defensively, state legislatures are also stepping up to protect their citizens. Oregon recently advanced House Bill 4228, the "Buyers Before Billionaires Act, giving local families a fair, unobstructed 90 day window to bid first before corporate entities can swoop in. Better yet, states like Texas have enacted sweeping laws like Senate Bill 17, which blocks non-US citizens and entities from China and other adversarial nations from buying up real property. Local county and city governments must follow suit by aggressively utilizing targeted zoning restrictions, implementing heavy tax penalties on non-owner-occupied corporate properties, and creating strong tax incentives for primary-residence buyers.

We must enforce clear, unyielding statutory boundaries that prioritize American families over global capital and foreign interests. Our neighborhoods must remain the bedrock of citizenship and family stability, not high-yield asset classes for global financial institutions or foreign governments. Our children must be given the opportunity to afford that home, start that family, and build the American dream.