The sweeping housing reform bill, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, is expected to pass in the House of Representatives Wednesday, after Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders reportedly reached an agreement with President Donald Trump and the White House, according to Politico.
The bill was passed by the Senate in March, but has been deadlocked in the House due to language differences between the House and the Senate versions regarding institutional investors. The Senate’s version of the bill included more restrictive limits on institutional investors building, owning and renting out single-family homes. The House’s version removed language from the Senate’s version requiring that single-family homes built by institutional inventors as rentals be sold within seven years to homebuyers.
Many voices in the House, along with in the real estate industry, previously criticized the more strict language toward institutional investors in the Senate’s version of the bill, specifically the seven-year rule.
According to Politico’s report, the updated bill now features a compromise between the two versions. There were also several other updates made: a provision for prevailing wages to be paid toward housing construction workers on federally funded projects was added back in; the Housing Supply Frameworks Act to establish best practices for zoning and land use was added back in; and the Build Now act to incentivize more housing construction through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program was removed.
Prior to this reported compromise, Trump urged the House to pass the Senate’s version of the bill in a Truth Social post, looking to “ensure that homes are for people, not Corporations.”
Others have also been urging for the passing of the bill, including the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). In a recent statement, NAHB Chairman Bill Owens urged for “House members to pass this landmark legislation and ask the Senate to approve this compromise swiftly.”
“Solving our nation’s housing crisis is truly a bipartisan issue, and NAHB has been encouraged by the collaboration between leaders in both parties to pass legislation that comprises the shared goal of President Trump and Congress to increase the supply of attainable housing,” he continued. “Now is the time for Congress and the president to work together to bring greater certainty to the housing market and let builders build.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association also released a statement this past Monday urging the House to pass the bill, as Bill Killmer—senior vice president Legislative and Political Affairs—stated that the association “believes this bipartisan measure, as revised, represents a positive and balanced attempt to boost housing supply, expand affordable homeownership and rental opportunities, reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens to housing production, embrace modern manufactured and modular housing, and increase collaboration across all agencies that regulate the housing and real estate finance sectors.”
“MBA strongly supports key revisions contained within the current House text that address our previously expressed concerns about the negative impacts of the prior bill’s language on rental housing capital flows and FHA multifamily loan limits,” he continued. “The new House text also improves the proposal regarding FHA’s disclosure form requirements intended to heighten awareness of home loan program options for veterans—and preserves prior improvements sought by MBA made to provisions that appropriately reform the USDA’s Rural Housing Service (RHS) program with respect to the financing of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and RHS loan assumptions, while codifying the GSEs’ reconsideration of value (ROV) appraisal processes (absent any increased lender liability).”
