Affordable Housing

The Affordability Crisis in Massachusetts

Massachusetts faces one of the most severe housing affordability crises in the nation. The median home price in the Commonwealth has soared to $625,000, placing homeownership far out of reach for working families.¹ In the 4th Congressional District—spanning Newton, Brookline, Fall River, Taunton, Attleboro, and surrounding communities—the crisis takes different forms but affects residents across all income levels.

In Newton, the median home price has reached $1.57 million.² In Brookline, it’s $1.2 million.² Even in traditionally more affordable communities like Fall River ($521,000), Taunton ($555,000), and Attleboro ($500,000), housing costs have become unsustainable for working families.² Renters face similarly dire circumstances: the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Boston metro area is $2,415 per month, requiring an annual income of $96,600 to afford—nearly double the median renter income.³

This crisis is not an accident. It is the result of decades of policy choices that have allowed Wall Street to treat housing as a commodity for speculation rather than protecting it as a fundamental human right.

Wall Street’s Role in the Housing Crisis

Following the 2008 financial crisis, corporate investors seized the opportunity to buy up single-family homes at low prices. What began as opportunistic purchases has become a systematic financialization of American housing. Private equity firms, hedge funds, and institutional investors now control hundreds of thousands of homes nationwide, extracting wealth from communities while driving up prices and rents.

In Massachusetts alone, corporate investors purchased 6,600 single-family homes in 2021, or 9% of all sales.⁴ These purchases disproportionately target working-class communities and communities of color, where investors can buy properties, raise rents, and flip homes for profit. The impact extends beyond direct purchases: when investors buy up available housing stock, they reduce supply for families trying to buy their first home, driving up prices across entire markets.

These Wall Street landlords operate differently than traditional landlords. They use algorithms to maximize rent increases, employ aggressive eviction tactics, and defer maintenance to boost profits. They bundle these properties into complex financial instruments—similar to the mortgage-backed securities that triggered the 2008 crisis—allowing speculation on housing to occur multiple times over.

Federal Solution: The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act

The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act, introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley, would fundamentally change the rules to prioritize people over profits.⁵

The legislation would:

Ban hedge funds and private equity firms from purchasing single-family homes. Large investment firms would be prohibited from buying homes meant for families, ending the practice of Wall Street landlords competing against first-time homebuyers.⁵

Require divestment of existing portfolios. Hedge funds and private equity firms that currently own single-family homes would be required to sell their holdings over a 10-year period, with priority given to current tenants, nonprofits, and local governments.⁵

End the tax advantages for corporate landlords. The bill would eliminate tax benefits that give institutional investors unfair advantages over individual homeowners and small landlords, leveling the playing field.⁵

Strengthen tenant protections. During the divestment period, the legislation would impose strict standards for maintenance, limit rent increases, and provide tenants with right of first refusal to purchase their homes.⁵

This is not a marginal reform—it is a direct challenge to the financialization of housing. By removing Wall Street from the single-family housing market, we can begin to reverse decades of wealth extraction and restore housing as a place to live rather than a vehicle for speculation.

Additional Federal Solutions

Banning hedge funds from buying homes is essential, but it must be paired with additional federal action to expand housing supply and affordability:

Massive investment in public housing. The federal government must finance the construction of millions of units of high-quality public housing—not means-tested poverty housing, but beautiful, well-maintained homes available to all regardless of income.

Federal tenant protections. Congress should establish nationwide rent control, just cause eviction standards, and tenant right to counsel in eviction proceedings. Housing is too important to leave tenant protections to the whims of state legislatures.

Zoning reform through federal incentives. The federal government should condition infrastructure and community development funding on states and localities eliminating exclusionary zoning that prevents multifamily housing, driving up costs and perpetuating segregation.

Why This Matters

The housing crisis is an economic crisis, a racial justice crisis, and a crisis of human dignity. When families spend 50%, 60%, or 70% of their income on rent, they cannot save for the future, invest in education, or weather financial emergencies. When young people cannot afford to live in the communities where they grew up, we lose the social fabric that holds neighborhoods together. When homeownership—historically the primary mechanism for building intergenerational wealth—becomes unattainable for working families, we entrench inequality for generations.

Wall Street’s colonization of the housing market has accelerated all of these dynamics. Reversing it requires federal action that puts people before profits. The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act is a crucial first step. Massachusetts needs a representative who will fight for it—and for the broader transformation our housing system demands.

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