Survey Shows Distrust Of Real Estate Investors In Housing Market

Nearly three-fourths of Americans (73%) blame real estate investors for the lack of affordable housing in the U.S. That’s according to a new survey by real estate research and services platform, Clever Offers.

The survey results, released on Tuesday, come just a day before remarks by President Donald Trump speaking on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump said the United States will not “become a nation of renters” and announced what he described as a ban on large institutional investors buying single-family homes,

Trump also signed an executive order on Tuesday restricting federal financing and approval pathways used by institutional investors to acquire single-family homes, following a Jan. 7 statement that he was moving to halt such purchases.

In tandem, Clever Offers’ survey found that 32% of recent home sellers consider real estate investors untrustworthy.

While administration officials argue that reducing investor competition could make more homes available to individual buyers, some say that institutional investors control a relatively small share of single-family housing nationally, though ownership is higher in some metropolitan areas.

Over half (60%) of respondents say they distrust cash-buying companies, and 51% say the same about iBuyers, tech-enabled instant offer platforms.

Due to large “distrust” of real estate investors, about half of home sellers (44%) said they would not knowingly sell to a real estate investor, up from 38% in 2024. Nearly six in ten respondents (59%) labeled cash-buying companies “scams.”

The research echoes frustration with investor influence on housing availability and cost at a time when national housing affordability continues to challenge many prospective buyers. More than 79% of Americans said they support regulating the housing market to rein in price increases.

When asked what change they would prioritize, 12% of Americans said they would impose tighter rules on investors and corporations, ranking third behind lowering home prices (35%) and reducing mortgage rates (25%).