Bipartisan housing bill clears House, heads to Trump
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bipartisan bill aimed at speeding up the construction and availability of affordable housing, sending it to President Donald Trump to be signed into law. The vote was 358-32, following the Senate's overwhelming approval of the measure on Monday by a vote of 85-5.
The legislation, known as the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is designed to address a housing supply shortage that has driven up costs across the country. According to housing industry groups, there is an estimated shortage of millions of affordable homes in the United States.
“America is facing a housing supply shortage that’s been years in the making,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, during floor debate. Hill added that the measure would “cut unnecessary barriers to new home construction” and modernize what he called outdated banking regulations to facilitate more home loans to lower-income people.
The bill includes several key provisions: it limits investors' ability to buy homes, bans investors from purchasing single-family homes if they already own 350 or more properties, waives some federal permitting rules to ease new construction, authorizes pilot programs to facilitate grants for home improvements and planning affordable housing, expands access to manufactured homes, and increases mortgage availability.
The push for the legislation comes as both parties gear up for November's congressional elections, with housing affordability expected to be a major issue for voters. A survey released Tuesday found that a majority of American consumers, for the first time since 2023, would prefer to buy a home rather than rent or move in with family members. The high cost of living, with inflation rising significantly during Trump's second term, is ranked as a top worry by voters.
Passage of such major legislation in the deeply divided Congress has been rare, making the bipartisan support notable. Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut called the bill “a remarkable thing.”
Senator Tim Scott, the Republican chairman of the Senate banking committee, who played a major role in seeing the bill through, said: “This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership.”
His Democratic counterpart, Senator Elizabeth Warren, said: “The historic 21st Century Road to Housing Act will address our nation’s housing crisis by boosting housing supply and lowering costs.”
The bill, which was written and rewritten several times by House and Senate negotiators over the past year, gives both Republicans and Democrats an accomplishment to tout on the campaign trail in the run-up to November's elections. The combination of high mortgage rates, rising home prices, and supply chain problems over the past several years has contributed to consumers' difficulties, according to reports.