Senate Passes Biggest Housing Bill in Decades

The Senate passed a bipartisan housing bill on Monday that aims to reduce federal regulations and expand local control, one of the most sweeping efforts in recent decades to increase supply and bring down prices. The bill, which passed 85-5 and now heads to the House, has been the focus of intense negotiations in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties try to address housing costs in an election year, the AP reports. The final version of the legislation bans corporate investors from buying single-family homes but doesn't include a Senate provision that would have required investors to sell newly constructed homes within seven years.

The measure was 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," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican who worked with Democrats to get the bill passed. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking panel, said it is the most significant housing bill to pass Congress since 1990, when the average home in America was sold for $150,000. Now it costs more than $500,000, she said.

• The bill "acknowledges that the federal government has a role to play in lowering housing prices," Warren told the AP. "For the first time ever, private equity will be blocked from buying up single-family homes and trying to turn housing into one more Wall Street investment."

Senate passage of the bill shapes up as a rare bipartisan legislative achievement when much of Republicans' agenda has stalled. The House is expected to give final approval later this week and send the bill to President Trump, who has signaled his support. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who helped negotiate the legislation, said it was a "huge step toward finally addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country."

• Republicans and Democrats have embraced the bill as a way to show they are addressing the nation's affordability crisis, driven in part by rising home prices due to a shortage of affordable housing. The US housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.
• To increase the supply of housing, the bill would streamline environmental reviews and speed up the construction process.It would offer funding to local governments that build more housing, including Community Development Block Grant money to places exceeding the median rate of homebuilding. It would also provide new dollars for communities to turn abandoned infrastructure into housing, and offers a framework for communities that want to reform outdated zoning regulations, which often limit larger housing developments.
• The legislation would allow banks to invest more in affordable housing and raise limits on the number of public housing units that can receive private financing through Section 8 funding to rehabilitate properties. And it would remove outdated requirements and expand federal financing to make manufactured homes more affordable.

• The bill has received widespread support in the housing community, both from organizations representing landlords and large property owners as well as groups that advocate for tenants and low-income renters. "There is no magic wand that will fix this crisis overnight, and no single piece of legislation is perfect," said David Dworkin, chief executive of the National Housing Conference, the nation's oldest housing coalition. "Compromise demands that. But this bill is a significant down payment on a long-term effort to make housing more affordable for all Americans."