House passes major housing bill, sending it to Trump

Congress sent President Donald Trump a major housing affordability bill Tuesday after the House overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan package aimed at increasing the supply of homes and limiting large investors’ purchases of single-family houses.

The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 358-32, one day after the Senate approved it 85-5. Trump supports the measure and is expected to sign it into law. The vote marked a rare bipartisan agreement in a divided political climate and followed months of negotiations between lawmakers in both chambers.

The legislation combines more than 50 housing and banking provisions, including grant funding and pilot programs to spur construction, changes to streamline some environmental reviews, and measures intended to reduce regulatory barriers for homebuilders. It also includes a section titled “Homes Are For People, Not Corporations,” which would bar institutional investors that own more than 350 single-family homes from buying more.

The deal was led by Senate Banking Committee leaders Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., along with House Financial Services Committee leaders French Hill, R-Ark., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif. A compromise investor provision came from Sens. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., NBC News reported.

“This final product advances practical, bipartisan and bicameral solutions to modernize federal housing programs, reduce regulatory burdens, streamline the development process and help build more homes to meet that growing demand and keep the American dream within reach,” Hill said Tuesday on the House floor.

Warren, speaking before the Senate vote, said the bill showed that bipartisan legislation can go beyond narrow compromise. “Today’s vote proves that it is possible to find bipartisan, common ground on legislation that actually helps the American people,” she said. In an interview with NPR, she added: “Every time every member of Congress goes back home they hear how urgent it is to bring down home prices. And that’s what the bill does.”

The package targets a housing market that has become increasingly difficult for many buyers. NPR reported, citing Redfin, that a family needs about $117,000 a year to afford the typical home on the market, nearly $30,000 more than most U.S. households earn. Mortgage rates are about 6.5%, according to NPR, and Realtor.com estimated that the U.S. was short by more than 4 million housing units last year.

“Supply is the key problem here,” Jeanna Kenney, assistant professor of economics, finance and real estate at Villanova University, told NPR. “Anything you can do to make supply easier is going to be helpful in the long term.”

Some provisions are designed to make building faster or cheaper. The bill allows certain projects built between two previously reviewed buildings to skip environmental review. It creates a grant program for local “pattern books” of preapproved housing designs. It also removes a requirement that manufactured homes include a permanent chassis, a steel frame that makes them movable. NPR reported that housing policy experts say that change could reduce construction costs by $5,000 to $10,000.

The investor ban has drawn debate. The White House called the bill “the most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in the history of our country,” citing the restrictions on corporate ownership of single-family homes. But the Urban Institute says large institutional investors account for about 3% of single-family rentals, or less than half a percent of total single-family housing stock. Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told CBS News: “A lot of people think that if we get rid of private equity, there will be all these houses available for sale for first-time homebuyers. But that’s not going to happen.”

Ross Marchand, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told NPR the ban could discourage needed investment. “It chills investment, and we need more investment in housing stock, not less,” he said.

Supporters said the bill is a beginning, not a complete solution. Waters said it “reflects meaningful progress” and called it “an important step forward, not the final destination.” Scott said the package 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.”