Across major cities like Philadelphia, families are being priced out of the very neighborhoods they built. Corporate investors and shell LLCs are buying up homes and lots by the block, turning them into rental empires and charging sky-high rents, fees, and add-ons that bleed working people dry. This isn’t a housing market—it’s a system of extraction.

Institutional investors now own more than 15% of single-family rentals in Philadelphia, with some neighborhoods nearing one in five homes under LLC control. That means fewer opportunities for first-time buyers, higher rent costs, and less stability for everyone else.

Thirty years ago, the average first-time homebuyer was 28. Today, it’s 40, and in a few years, it will be 45. At this rate, my generation will own nothing while being told to “work harder” by the same people profiting off our rent checks.

I propose capping how much neighborhood property a single corporation or LLC can own, empowering local governments to repurchase units from large investors and return them to first-time buyers or community land trusts, and banning shell transfers that let companies conceal ownership through fake subsidiaries.

We need more leaders in Congress fighting to protect the American dream of homeownership before it's sold off to the highest bidder. Working families should shape our neighborhoods, not corporate landlords.