Congress sends major housing bill to Trump’s desk

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, sending the bipartisan bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature.

The legislation, which aims to boost housing supply and home ownership nationally, cleared the lower chamber in a 358-32 vote Tuesday evening after sailing through the Senate the night before.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., who helped shape the package, called it “one of the most significant bipartisan housing reforms in recent memory.”

“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 told lawmakers.

At 381 pages, the long-delayed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act largely focuses on simplifying or changing regulations that can slow new home building.

Among other regulatory reforms, the bill streamlines environmental reviews for new housing construction, raises the income eligibility for Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) project grants, and makes affordable housing construction eligible for Community Development Block Grant funding.

It also encourages community bank investments in housing by raising banks’ public welfare investment cap from 15% to 20% of their total capital and expanding access to third-party funding sources for financing mortgages and home construction loans.

To expand manufactured housing, the legislation eliminates the current requirement that all manufactured homes be built on a permanent chassis. It also authorizes a specialized grant program for areas with manufactured housing communities and updates mortgage lending standards through the Federal Housing Administration for manufactured homes.

In a slightly controversial move, the bill ties some municipalities’ Community Block Grant Development funding to the rate of their homebuilding, decreasing funding for recipients that lag on housing production and rewarding localities that accelerate it.

The legislation also incentivizes local governments to reform permitting and zoning laws in favor of housing construction by establishing a seven-year, $200 million annual competitive grant program for municipalities that significantly add to their housing supply.

While lawmakers ultimately stripped a provision that would have required large institutional investors to sell rental homes they built to individuals within seven years of construction, they included some restrictions on corporate home ownership.

Nearly 27% of all home sales in the first quarter of 2025 went to investors, both corporate and individual, according to a recent analysis by BatchData.

To help address the problem, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act institutes the first federal ban on large institutional investors – defined as entities that own more than 350 housing units – from buying single-family homes for the next 15 years. Manufactured housing, multifamily homes, and build-to-rent properties are exempted from the ban.

Republicans also obtained a four-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency, though it exempts “any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private, and fully preserves the privacy protections of United States coins and physical currency.”

With the 2026 midterm elections approaching, the bill gives Republicans an opportunity to showcase Trump-endorsed legislation as evidence they are tackling affordability issues, which Democrats have made a pain point for the party.

The median home price in the U.S. sits above $405,000 while the median annual household income is below $84,000, according to the most recent federal statistics.

Meanwhile, the median age of first-time buyers jumped to 40 in 2025, seven years older than the median age just five years prior, according to a National Association of Realtors analysis.

“We promised the American people we would fight to make homeownership attainable again, and today we delivered,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said on social media following the House vote. “Republicans have been laser-focused on lowering costs for working families, and the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a pivotal part of making that a reality.”

Hundreds of organizations have expressed support for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, including the National Association of Homebuilders, the National Association of Realtors, the National Housing Conference, the National Association of Counties, and the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passing both chambers is a milestone not just for housing policy, but for what’s possible when Congress works together,” Dennis Shea, Executive Vice President of BPC’s Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy, stated. “For the families who’ve been priced out, squeezed out, or left behind by a broken housing market, this is a meaningful step—and it’s long overdue.”

Trump is expected to sign the bill into law Wednesday at the Capitol.