Here's a question that probably shouldn't need answering in 2025, but apparently does: Does BlackRock Inc. (BLK) buy your neighbor's house? The answer, according to the firm itself, is a very emphatic no.
The world's largest asset manager moved quickly on Thursday to clear up what it calls years of confusion after President Donald Trump announced plans to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. The proposal sent asset managers and alternative investment firms tumbling on Wednesday, as traders priced in what could happen if Wall Street money gets locked out of housing.
In an exclusive conversation with MarketDash, Christopher Berger, Director of Corporate Affairs at BlackRock, laid it out plainly: "We don't buy single-family homes. We have other real estate exposure, but we do not own single-family housing."
Trump's announcement came with the kind of populist framing that plays well on social media. "People live in homes, not corporations," he posted, positioning homeownership as a cornerstone of the "American Dream" that's slipping further from reach for many families. He said he'd move to block institutional investors from buying additional single-family homes and push Congress to make it law.
Markets reacted immediately. The proposal revived a narrative that's been circulating for years: Wall Street is crowding regular families out of the housing market.
Index Funds Are Not House Flippers
So why does BlackRock keep getting dragged into this? Berger says it comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of how index investing works.
"More than 90% of our clients' equity investments are through index strategies," he explained. "We are a major investor in virtually every company and industry because those investments track third-party indices. That doesn't mean we are directing capital into specific strategies like single-family housing."
In other words, BlackRock holds stakes in thousands of publicly traded companies on behalf of clients, including some firms with real estate exposure. But owning shares in a company that buys houses is very different from actually buying houses yourself.
Berger stressed that this indirect ownership through index funds is nothing like actively purchasing or operating housing stock. It's the difference between owning a slice of a pizza company and showing up at your door with a pepperoni pie.
A Years-Long Battle Against Confusion
"We've been fighting this confusion," Berger told MarketDash. And he's not exaggerating. The firm launched a dedicated website back in 2022 specifically to explain that it doesn't buy single-family homes. It's run social media campaigns. It's worked with fact-checkers.
When asked whether BlackRock supports Trump's goal of banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, Berger replied: "As we said on X, we support the President's goal of securing the dream of home ownership for more Americans."
He emphasized that the firm's clarification efforts started long before this week's announcement. "Just to be clear, we clarified this long before Trump announcement. We have been clarifying this since 2021," he said.
Shares of BlackRock Inc. (BLK) rose 1.2% on Thursday, recovering some ground after Wednesday's sell-off.