House committee advances bill to bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes

A House Banking, Financial Services and Pensions Committee advanced legislation that would bar large institutional investors from buying single-family homes in Oklahoma. Representative Dallins introduced House Bill 10 64, telling the committee that “currently, about 55,000 homes are owned by Wall Street” and that Oklahoma ranks in the top five nationally for such ownership.

The bill would prohibit institutional investors that exceed a threshold of assets under management from purchasing single-family residences; the sponsor told members he is proposing an initial definition that applies to entities with total assets under management exceeding $100,000,000 and has agreed to strike a section that would have required those investors to resell homes to Oklahomans. “The main point is preventing Wall Street from treating our neighborhoods like stock portfolios,” Dallins said during the committee exchange.

Committee members questioned the scope and possible consequences. Representative Curbs asked whether the bill could instead set a cap based on a percentage of the local housing market; Dallins said the Oklahoma Realtors Association is working on data and that he is open to adding a market-share cap. Another lawmaker raised a hypothetical in which a homeowner receives a significantly above-market offer from an institutional buyer and asked whether lawmakers should limit a seller’s ability to accept such offers; the transcript records the concern but does not attribute that question to a named speaker.

Representative Hayes pressed for evidence that institutional purchases are a primary driver of housing unaffordability; Dallins said he could provide data after the meeting and pointed to prior episodes of large-scale nonresident land purchases as examples of market distortion.

The committee recorded a motion to advance the bill and, by the chair’s declaration, voted 5 to 2 to pass it and refer it for further consideration. Dallins told the committee he expects to return with refined definitions and changes requested during the hearing.

Next steps: The bill was referred for further consideration by the committee; sponsors indicated they will work on tightening the statutory definitions and on any market-share cap amendment before the bill returns.