The House has passed an amended version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by a 396 to 13 vote, advancing a bipartisan package aimed at tackling the nation’s housing affordability crisis and supply shortfall.
The amended bill reflects a compromise on investor activity in the single-family market, scaling back stricter Senate provisions like the seven-year sell-off stipulation while maintaining limits aligned with the Trump administration’s broader push to curb institutional competition.
The House amendment focuses on expanding supply across housing types, from single-family and multifamily to factory-built housing, while reducing barriers that have slowed new development.
Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shared: “NAHB applauds the House for overwhelmingly approving the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with strong bipartisan support. Led by House Financial Services Committee chairman French Hill and ranking member Maxine Waters, the package eliminates a forced-sale provision on rental housing that would have reduced supply, raises and indexes multifamily loan limits to help spur new apartment development, and provides meaningful relief to community banks. We urge the Senate to move quickly to send this once-in-a-generation housing bill to President Trump to expand housing supply and address America’s housing affordability challenges.”
While unveiling the updated act yesterday, chairman Hill said: “After months of bipartisan collaboration and stakeholder feedback, I’m proud to bring the improved 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to the House floor. This bill prioritizes American families by expanding homeownership, enhancing affordability, reducing burdensome regulations that drive up costs, and increasing housing supply nationwide. Importantly, it delivers on President Trump’s call to limit institutional investors from competing with the American people as they seek to purchase a home. I remain committed to advancing a bipartisan, bicameral housing package that can ultimately be signed into law by the President.”
Key provisions include:
- Cutting regulatory hurdles: Streamlining permitting and allowing use of pre-approved home designs to accelerate construction timelines.
- Modernizing federal housing programs: Updating HUD oversight of manufactured housing and expanding flexibility within the HOME program to support affordable housing production.
- Easing environmental and administrative burdens: Exempting certain small-scale developments from federal reviews and loosening funding constraints for local jurisdictions.
- Strengthening community lending: Reducing regulatory burdens on community banks, expanding access to stable deposits, and improving their ability to finance local housing projects.
Lawmakers say the package is designed to remove bottlenecks and unlock production, ultimately creating more attainable housing options for both buyers and renters.
The bill now heads back to the Senate, which will decide whether to accept the House changes or negotiate a final version before sending legislation to the White House.
