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Trump’s housing hammer crushes Wall Street home grab despite last-minute mutiny

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President Trump’s housing crackdown barreled through the House Wednesday in a landslide vote, despite backroom pressure from Senate Republicans and a last-minute revolt from conservative hardliners obsessed with digital dollars and government snooping.

The massive bipartisan package — pitched by Republicans as a lifeline for Americans getting crushed by sky-high housing costs — sailed through the chamber 396-13, giving the GOP a ready-made campaign weapon ahead of the midterms. And in a town where Congress can barely agree on what day it is, that margin was practically a miracle.

The legislation, heavily backed by the White House, takes aim at one of the biggest villains in America’s housing mess: giant institutional investors gobbling up single-family homes while regular families get left fighting over scraps.

The final House version blocks large investment firms from buying newly built single-family homes — a provision President Trump has championed as part of his affordability push. Even progressive Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren have oddly found themselves on the same side of the issue, arguing Wall Street cash machines have tilted the market against ordinary buyers.

Still, Republicans stripped out one of the Senate bill’s most explosive provisions: a forced sell-off requirement that would’ve ordered large investors to unload rental homes within seven years.

Critics warned that idea could backfire badly by shrinking rental inventory and hammering the growing build-to-rent market — one of the few remaining options for Americans who’ve been priced out of buying altogether after years of inflation, high interest rates and supply shortages.

“The White House supports the House’s housing bill thanks to the changes that were made,” a White House official told Fox News Digital.

That endorsement handed House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leadership a major political victory after they openly ignored Senate pressure to rubber-stamp the upper chamber’s version without changes.

Instead, House Republicans rewrote key pieces themselves — a rare flex of backbone in modern Congress. The Senate may not be thrilled.

The revised bill now heads back across the Capitol, where lawmakers will need 60 votes to move it forward. Some senators are already grumbling over the House rewrite, meaning the final outcome is still far from guaranteed. But Republicans are betting voters care less about Senate turf wars and more about the brutal reality facing would-be homeowners.

Housing affordability has become one of the defining economic headaches of the decade. Home prices remain near record highs in many markets, mortgage rates have squeezed buyers, and inventory shortages continue to plague fast-growing states across the country. Institutional investors still own only a relatively small slice of America’s total housing stock, but their aggressive buying in certain metro areas has fueled outrage from both left and right.

A recent Bipartisan Policy Center survey found strong public support for restricting mega-investors from expanding massive housing portfolios, though support softened when voters were told such limits could reduce rental supply.

House Financial Services Chairman French Hill framed the bill as a direct response to voter anger over affordability. “This bill prioritizes American families by expanding homeownership, enhancing affordability, reducing burdensome regulations that drive up costs, and increasing housing supply nationwide,” Hill said. “Importantly, it delivers on President Trump’s call to limit institutional investors from competing with the American people as they seek to purchase a home.”

Not everybody on the right was celebrating. A bloc of conservatives tied to the House Freedom Caucus torched the legislation over language dealing with central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs — the controversial concept of government-backed digital money that privacy hawks warn could become a financial surveillance nightmare.

The bill temporarily blocks the federal government from rolling out a CBDC until 2030. For fiscal conservatives and civil libertarians, that wasn’t good enough. “A temporary ban is the worst of both worlds: political cover today, a clear runway tomorrow,” Rep. Warren Davidson wrote this week. “Make it permanent, or take it out.”

That dispute triggered the only real GOP mutiny in an otherwise overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. Still, party leaders are clearly hoping the housing push gives Republicans a stronger answer to voters furious over the cost of living. “Increased housing costs and lack of quality supply are two issues that impact nearly every American family,” Johnson said Wednesday, calling the legislation “a strong bipartisan package that will put more American families into homes.”

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