Housing Populism Under Financialized Capitalism

This paper examines the rise of housing populism---narratives that cast financial investors as predatory, demand investor bans, and frame housing as a fundamental social right requiring state protection. We argue that politicians embrace housing populism less because it reflects economic realities than because it resonates with public moral commitments: distrust of finance capitalism and support for housing as a collective entitlement. Using U.S. property-level transaction data (2012-2021), a difference-in-differences analysis finds no consistent evidence that investor activity increases housing costs. Yet original surveys reveal widespread, bipartisan beliefs that investors undermine the right to housing and that government should safeguard access. A candidate-choice experiment further shows that candidates advocating investor bans framed in rights-based or anti-elite terms substantially outperform those prioritizing home-building through pragmatic or market-oriented appeals. Housing populism channels social-rights claims into symbolic confrontations between ``the people’’ and financial elites, often displacing more effective policy responses.