First-time buyers get 60 days before investors can bid

In New Jersey, Assembly Bill 5257 would put a 60-day lock on certain single-family home sales. Assemblymen Robert J. Karabinchak of Middlesex and William W. Spearman of Camden and Gloucester sponsor the bill, which would bar covered entities from contacting the owner, bidding on the home or buying it during the first two months on the market.

The bill defines those covered entities to include private equity and venture capital investors. It is built around one simple idea: give individual buyers a cleaner first pass at a house before deep-pocketed investors can crowd them out.

Keeping the house from flipping into a rental

The proposal does not stop at the purchase. If a covered entity eventually acquires a single-family home, it would be barred from leasing the property for five years. That restriction is meant to keep the home from moving straight from the sales market into the rental pool.

The bill's findings tie the problem to the housing shifts that followed the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, when institutional investors gained a bigger foothold in residential real estate. The concern is not abstract. When homes are bought quickly and turned into rentals, fewer are left for families trying to buy and stay in them.