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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

A new report from the Government Accountability Office looks at the impact of asset managers on the single family home market in the United States since the great financial crisis and has found that the impact is murky at best.

Congress is currently considering a bill that would limit asset managers from owning large portfolios of single family homes as concerns grow over a housing affordability crisis in the US. The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act, was introduced in the Senate by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley with companion legislation introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Smith in December. The bill seeks to force asset managers to divest their current holdings of single family homes over the next ten years and ban them from investing in more than 50 single family homes at all going forward. Any portfolio with over 50 homes would face a $50,000 tax per home. The bill specifically bans hedge funds from investing in single family homes but defines hedge funds relatively broadly as any taxpayer with $50 million or more of assets under management.

The totality of asset manager ownership of single family homes is unclear. Industry estimates say more than one million homes have some type of corporate/asset management owner. Many of these portfolios were initially created in the aftermath of the great financial crisis with the government's blessing, but as the housing affordability crisis has worsened lawmakers are taking a......................

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