The largest piece of housing legislation was passed by the Senate with overwhelming support on Thursday, promising to boost inventory levels and improve affordability for American homebuyers struggling with years of price increases.
But the future of the package, written by Senators Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, remains uncertain, as several House lawmakers are skeptical of some of its measures and President Donald Trump has indicated that the legislation is not a priority for his administration.
The United States is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis, which seems unlikely to be resolved without intervention from the federal or state governments.
Historically low borrowing costs and the rise of remote work during the pandemic sparked a surge in demand that clashed with chronically low inventory levels, driving up home prices across the country. Home prices have risen 60 percent since 2019, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, and the median price of a single-family home in 2024 reached five times the median household income -- much beyond the threshold of what is considered affordable.
On top of this, higher mortgage rates in response to the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate-hiking campaign to lower inflation in 2022 have also contributed to making homeownership an ever more far-fetched dream for many Americans, as have higher property taxes and homeowners' insurance premiums.
At the root of the ongoing housing affordability crisis is a shortage of available homes across the nation. Experts have estimated that 2 million to 20 million homes are needed to address the existing shortfall and improve affordability.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support in a 89-10 vote.
At the heart of the bill is an attempt to boost much-needed supply in the country by preserving existing homes, through roughly 40 provisions that remove regulatory barriers, provide incentives for new construction projects, and expand manufactured housing, which can be built faster and more cheaply.
Many of the bill's provisions (84 percent) were included in a version passed by the House last month, but the Senate-backed version includes a ban that would prevent investors who own at least 350 homes from buying more.
"We put this bill together with the deep-seated belief that it is families who should live in homes and that's what homes are for," Warren said in an interview with NPR. "They're not there simply as investment vehicles for Wall Street private equity."
Her words echoed those of Trump, who said in January, when he first suggested a ban on institutional investors, that "people live in homes, not corporations."
Investors would still be allowed to build new construction and rehabilitate existing homes, but, under the new law, large investors would be required to sell those properties to everyday buyers after seven years, with a three-year extension to that deadline if a renter wants to stay in the property.
Senator Elizabeth Warren told NPR of the bipartisan support for the bill: "It's Democrats. It's Republicans. It's pieces they built out together. That is the strength of this bill."
Senator Tim Scott said before Thursday's vote on the Senate floor: "It's not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It's an issue about helping moms like the one who raised me, the amazing woman that she was, become homeowners."
National Housing Conference president David Dworkin said in a statement: "With the country millions of homes short of what is needed and housing costs continuing to rise, it is encouraging to see Congress come together around bipartisan solutions aimed at expanding supply and modernizing key housing programs."
He added, "No bill is perfect, but this legislation includes many important policies that will help expand housing supply and improve affordability. Provisions in the bill that could hurt the ability of investors to build tens of thousands of units of rental housing per year will need to be addressed by the House."
The House and the Senate will now need to reconcile the differences between the two bills before sending a final version to Trump's desk. The House bill, known as the Housing for the 21st Century Act and led by Republican Arkansas Representative French Hill, contains fewer provisions than the Senate's.
But even if lawmakers in both chambers resolve their differences on issues such as a ban on investors, the president might not rush to sign the bill.
While the White House has expressed its support for the Senate's package, saying on March 2 that Trump would have signed it into law in its current form, Trump said he would not sign any legislation until Congress passes sweeping election-law reform in the form of the SAVE America Act.
"It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION -- GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY -- ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL: NO MEN IN WOMEN'S SPORTS: NO TRANSGENDER MUTILIZATION FOR CHILDREN! DO NOT FAIL!!!"
Trump wrote on Truth Social.