Nick Fountain

In this period we are in now, would stopping institutional investors from buying up properties make housing more affordable or less affordable?

But it does do a few things that aim to discourage the practice.

When people buy homes, the federal government often insures or guarantees or securitizes their mortgage.

And the order directs government agencies to not do that for big investors.

In fact, in the period she studied, large institutional investors bought in cash 83 percent of the time.

By and large, they are not dependent on mortgage financing.

They get money to buy homes from investors.

So all in all, do you think these policies are going to move the needle on housing affordability?

Big pause.

Sigh.

Yeah, not that conclusive.

Though I do think we have learned something important here, which is that how Wall Street investors play into the cost of housing depends on the context, where we are in time, where we are in the country, and who investors are buying from and who they're renting to.

Yes, I go to bed every night thanking this complex financial instrument for my job.

Is that weird?

Yeah, I'm going to be honest.

We were expecting more on housing affordability during Trump's big speech in Davos last week.

It was billed by the White House as the rollout of his housing affordability plan.

But it ended up being not very focused on that.

But he did bring up a concrete new program.

But what he was talking about in Davos was his most direct intervention into the mortgage market so far.