LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's not often you see people such as Nevada Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford and Attorney General Aaron Ford agree with Donald Trump.
On anything.
And it's even more rare to find Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo on the other side of an issue from Trump.
But when it comes to corporations buying single-family homes in Nevada, that's exactly where we are.
WATCH | Trump backs Democratic idea on housing
How did we get here? Let's take a look at the timeline:
• 2023 Legislature: Nevada state Sen. Dina Neal introduces Senate Bill 395, which would have capped the number of homes that corporations, LLCs, or their affiliates could buy in a single year.
The idea behind the measure was that regular families have a hard time competing with large corporate entities that can afford to buy a home for cash.
The bill passed on a mostly party-line vote, with state Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Washoe County, joining with Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly to get the bill to the governor's desk.
But Lombardo vetoed the measure, saying it would cost the state tax revenue, cost construction workers their jobs and reduce the available stock of homes.
• 2025 Legislature: Undeterred by Lombardo's rejection of her 2023 bill, Neal introduces Senate Bill 391, which would limit corporate entities to buying 100 homes per year, and cap all corporate purchases at 1,000 homes per year.
But when the bill came up for a vote in the state Senate, Hansen stood up to say that while he supported the bill, he was going to vote no, because Lombardo's office had asked all Republican senators to oppose it.
"For the first time this session, I have actually been asked by the executive branch to support a caucus 'no' position, which I agreed to do," he said. "Having said that, I supported my colleague from [Senate District] 4's bill last session, and I support the concept currently as well."
The bill — which required a two-thirds vote — fell a single vote short and died 13-8.
• 2025 special session (November): After the governor called the Legislature into special session to deal with topics including a crime bill and a film tax credit proposal, the Legislature used its constitutional power to call itself into special session, with the signatures of two thirds of the members on a petition.
The only item on the agenda? A cap on corporate housing.
Senate Bill 10 — introduced by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro — limited corporate home purchases to no more than 1,000 in a year. The bill, which still required a two-thirds supermajority, sailed through the state Senate with a bipartisan vote of 18-0, with three senators absent.
But when it got to the Assembly, it met a surprising and heartbreaking end: It failed 27-10 — losing by a single vote cast cast by Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen, R-Washoe County, the wife of Ira Hansen.
She hinted that efforts to achieve a compromise had been unsuccessful, and noted that while she'd signed the petition to call lawmakers into session to consider the bill, she'd never promised to vote for it.
"I, in full good faith, believing in this body to be able to work in a collaborative way, put my name on a petition so that we could visit the subject of housing," she said. "But I never committed my vote. And I was hoping for the best, but that has not transpired."
Once again, the bill was dead.
• Jan, 7: Then, in a surprise move, Trump posted to Truth Social that he was joining the fight against corporate home buying.
"For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing, but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans," Trump wrote in the post. "It is for that reason, and much more, that I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations. I will discuss this topic, including further Housing and Affordability proposals, and more, at my speech in Davos in two weeks."
Ford, who is running to win the Democratic nomination for governor in an attempt to unseat Lombardo, issued a news release claiming Trump had sided with him on the issue. He promised to sign an anti-corporate housing bill within the first 30 days of the 2027 session.
Lombardo, for his part, appeared to be caught off-guard. His office issued a statement saying, "While President Trump works to address corporate homeownership issues at the federal level, my administration continues work on this complex issue at the state level."
The statement added that the governor had been actively developing "an interim stakeholder working group to develop a complete understanding of this issues surrounding corporate homeownership and we're working to identify consensus solutions we can quickly deploy in state to lower the cost of housing in Nevada."
Lombardo did, during the 2025 session, get passed a housing bill aimed at putting money behind attainable housing for workforce members including teachers, nurses and public safety first responders.
• Jan 20: True to his promise, Trump signed an executive order, saying "people live in homes, not corporations" and lamenting that "the American dream has been increasingly out of reach for too many of our citizens, especially first-time homebuyers."
Under Trump's order, the government will formally define "large institutional investor" and "single family home;" avoid approving or financing the purchase of single-family homes; review corporate acquisitions for potential anti-trust violations.
The order also calls on Congress to develop legislation on the subject.
Channel 13 reached out to the governor's staff on Wednesday for comment on Trump's order, but did not hear back.
In response to the order, Ira and Alexis Hansen issued a joint statement, which reads, in part: "This bold action directly addresses one of the most pressing challenges facing American families: the ability to achieve the dream of homeownership without being outbid by massive institutional investors and Wall Street firms.
"His [Trump's] action will help preserve single-family homes for hardworking Americans, especially first-time buyers and young families who have been squeezed by high prices driven in part by corporate buying," the statement adds. "It aligns perfectly with our long-held belief that housing should build family wealth and strengthen communities, not enrich distant corporations."
