Congress Passes Landmark Housing Affordability Bill

The U.S. House and Senate have passed a landmark housing bill with bipartisan support, setting the stage for President Donald Trump to sign it.

The House voted 358-32 to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act on Tuesday night, one day after the Senate easily passed the bill by a vote of 85-5. The one-two step came after months of sometimes-contentious negotiations over the dozens of provisions in the bill, before the Senate and the House announced a bipartisan compromise last week.

The bill's 45 provisions are aimed at cutting red tape and encouraging the construction of more homes. The bill also includes a ban on institutional investor homebuyers, which was a priority of Trump.

Members of both parties hailed the compromise as a rare move of bipartisanship. And it comes as both sides jockey with differing affordability messages ahead of the midterms.

"While it does not solve every issue we have today with housing in this country, it does a lot," Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said on the House floor late Tuesday.

Lynch, who co-founded the large, bipartisan Real Estate Caucus, said the bill is "a collaboration between Republicans and Democrats on one of those elements of the American Dream that is undeniable."

The bill's four major proponents are House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. French Hill (R-AK) and ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA); as well as Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chair Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

“Housing affordability starts with supply, and this bill makes meaningful progress toward building more homes and lowering costs for American families," Hill said on Monday night.

What's in the housing bill?

The bill includes new restrictions targeting large institutional investors in the housing market, a major priority for Trump. Several provisions of that ban were softened or eased after a revolt from the build-for-rent industry, which worried it would stifle construction.

Realtor.com® senior economist Hannah Jones says those changes may have a muted effect. Large investors have decreased their activity from the COVID-19 pandemic highs. Meanwhile, mom and pop investors continue to dominate that market and their share of housing is growing.

"The composition shift away from mega-investors removes one source of potential future surge, but it also removes the most likely source of large-scale market exit," Jones says.

Late-stage negotiations in the bill also brought additional financial regulation, including some deregulation aimed at helping small banks and credit unions pick up the pace of mortgage lending.

Congressional Republicans, especially, favor banking deregulation. Fewer restrictions there encourage more banks to return to the mortgage space. Bank and credit union advocates welcomed the changes.

"Credit unions make homeownership possible for millions of members, and we are encouraged by lawmakers' efforts to focus on practical solutions," Scott Simpson, CEO of America's Credit Unions, said in a statement.

The bill has a range of provisions to reduce review and permitting times. Housing advocates argue those drive up the timing and cost of homes. Democrats, meanwhile, favored a few new mandates to encourage cities to develop new housing strategies.

All sides said the bill amounted to a major compromise among broad stakeholders.

"By no means was this bill a small feat," Waters said. "It required difficult conversations and tough negotiations to get across the finish line. But in the end, we delivered stronger, more impactful legislation with more housing opportunities for the American people."

How it will help

Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner says the bill, one of the largest housing packages out of Washington in 30 years, arrives at a time of complex challenges exacerbated by a housing shortage.

The latest Housing Supply Gap report from Realtor.com found the U.S. was short 4.03 million homes in 2025. Meanwhile, 1.82 million Gen Z and millennial households are effectively "missing" from the housing market. It's simply too expensive for them to break in, and they remain living with parents or roommates instead of forming their own households.

Many of them are pessimistic that they'll ever be able to afford a home.

That harms their financial prospects in the long term. The Realtor.com Generational Wealth report found that households buying before age 30 have a 22.5% higher net worth than those who wait until their 40s. That amounts to about $119,000 more by age 50.

“The housing market is not straining under a temporary shock; it is pressing against a structural shortage of homes that has been building for more than a decade," Berner says.

Bob Broeksmit, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the bill contains "meaningful reforms that will benefit renters, homebuyers, homeowners, and communities across the country."

“By advancing commonsense reforms that encourage housing production and improve program efficiency, Congress has demonstrated that bipartisan cooperation can deliver real results for consumers, communities, and the broader economy.

Kevin Brown, president of the National Association of Realtors®, praised the bill in a Senate hearing on Tuesday. He said deregulation and pro-building policies that would encourage construction are "a great start."

"This bill is extremely important to increasing affordability in the housing market," Brown said. "You're cutting red tape, you're cutting regulator burdens, and you're increasing inventory. That's a way that we're going to be able to tackle the affordability crisis."

Who voted to pass the 21st Century Road to Housing Act?

The 32 no votes in the House were all Republicans. Of the 41 members who didn't vote, 20 were Republican and 21 were Democrats. A group of 25 Republicans announced late in the day that they would not support the bill unless the House first moved on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, an election security bill.

"It will pass overwhelmingly so Congress can say it is 'doing something' on housing while spending more money we don’t have to expand government in ways it should not..." Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said of the bill in an X post before the vote.

In total, 85 members of the Senate voted for the bill and 10 did not record a vote. The five no votes in the Senate were all Republicans: Ron Johnson of Wyoming, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

The Senate passed its first version of the bill 89-10 in March, and the House passed an amended version by a 396-13 vote in May.

This article has been updated throughout with information on the final House vote on June 23.