Anti-money laundering has become an ongoing topic for the Biden administration. The latest round of reports focuses in part on real estate. As a result, the Treasury Department has proposed new rules that would govern CRE transactions.

The report addressed real estate as part of a luxury and high-value goods category. "Money laundering through real estate can negatively affect home prices, particularly since illicit actors seeking to integrate illicit funds may be willing to over or under pay for a property," the report read.

The report quotes estimates of 20% to 30% of residential real estate transactions are performed as all-cash, making it more difficult to identify the parties involved. Some of the activities the government says the money laundering through real estate transactions supports include "narcotics trafficking, corruption, human trafficking, fraud, and sanctions evasion." The non-financed transactions may use "legal vehicles or arrangements designed to obfuscate the purchaser's identity and source of funds to integrate ill-gotten proceeds into the formal economy."