Braden Langford’s family moved to Atlanta’s Adamsville neighborhood in 1964, and he still lives in the spacious bungalow. The property has enabled his family to build generational wealth, but over the years, he says he’s seen the neighborhood change.
“We used to know everybody in the neighborhood back in the day,” he said. Now, many people are renters who come and go, unable to purchase a home. That is frustrating not only for first-time homebuyers who want to build wealth. Langford says it has also corroded a sense of neighborhood cohesion and identity.
A major factor leading to that corrosion is private equity firms buying up homes. The American Economic Liberties Project found that institutional investors reduced the housing stock and contributed to driving up prices, making it harder for people to own their own homes. Private equity firms own 72,000 homes in Atlanta. That’s double the number in any other metro area, and roughly a quarter of all single-family rental homes in the region.
This weekend, such mass purchasing became unlawful. In a rare piece of bipartisan legislation, Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law automatically on July 11 after President Trump declined to sign it. The bill cleared the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32—a level of consensus almost unheard of in today’s Congress.
The legislation aims to fix a series of housing-related problems that didn’t happen overnight. After the 2008 financial crisis, Atlanta became what one recent report called a “laboratory” for Wall Street landlords. A wave of foreclosures and a homebuilding industry that had collapsed created ideal conditions for institutional investors to buy single-family homes in bulk and convert them into permanent rental stock. And Georgia’s landlord-friendly laws, like fast eviction procedures and no rent control, made it an ideal place for these companies to rent.
The bill’s most talked-about provision restricts these large institutional investors—defined as entities that own at least 350 single-family homes—from purchasing additional single-family homes. It also creates a renter outreach resource to help tenants of investor-owned homes navigate landlord disputes and directs federal agencies to establish procedures for homebuyers who believe their property was undervalued in the appraisal process, a practice that has disproportionately affected Black homeowners.
During a press conference Monday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) celebrated the legislation. He wrote several key provisions, including the limit on the number of additional homes private equity can buy and the measure making discrimination in the appraisal process illegal.
“Let’s be clear, if you’re a single mom,” he said, “you cannot compete with Wall Street. They will outbid you every time, and so this is about fairness.”
He said the goal is for more Americans to achieve the American dream and experience the stability and dignity that homeownership affords. Given the enormous scope of private equity ownership in Atlanta, the legislation could have a particularly large impact on the city.
Atlanta City Council member Andrea L. Boone, who also grew up in Adamsville, said the private equity legislation sent a clear message to Wall Street. “Our communities are not investment portfolios,” she said.
Still, housing advocates caution that the bill is only a first step. Georgia’s affordability crunch has been decades in the making, and even with the new purchasing limits in place, the tens of thousands of homes already owned by institutional investors aren’t going anywhere. The law caps future acquisitions, but doesn’t force firms to sell what they already hold.
Langford hopes the legislation will bring back a community feel to the neighborhood. Neighbor knowing neighbor, everyone invested in the community, committed to staying for decades rather than months.
