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The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed the House of Representatives after clearing the Senate and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature in the coming days.
The housing package aims to reduce homeownership costs and improve housing supply while incorporating priorities from Congress and the White House. Lawmakers from both chambers, who reached a deal on the package last week, want to deliver something to voters amid rising costs of living ahead of the midterm elections in the fall.
“Washington just proved it can still do hard things on housing, and that’s worth celebrating,” Isaac Boltansky, head of public policy at Pennymac, said in a statement. “But one bill won’t solve an affordability crisis built over decades. It takes sustained effort, legislatively and administratively.”
Dennis Shea, executive vice president of the Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) called the bill’s passage through both chambers a “milestone.”
“For the families who’ve been priced out, squeezed out, or left behind by a broken housing market, this is a meaningful step — and it’s long overdue,” Shea said in a statement.
“The House’s passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marks a major milestone in the effort to address America’s housing challenges,” David M. Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, said Tuesday night in a statement. “With both the House and Senate now having approved the legislation, the bill is on its way to the President’s desk. This achievement reflects years of work by housing advocates, industry leaders, community organizations, and policymakers from both parties who recognized the urgent need for action.”
Institutional investor limits
The White House pushed for the bill in part because it aligns with a Trump executive order on institutional investor acquisitions of single-family properties. Institutional buyers have faced criticism for purchasing homes that might otherwise be available to owner-occupants.
The Senate’s version of the ROAD to Housing Act, released in March, would have broadly restricted large investors from acquiring additional homes and included a seven-year divestiture requirement for build-to-rent properties. After pushback from homebuilders, investors and House members, lawmakers removed the divestiture requirement and added carve-outs for several types of transactions.
The final compromise, reached in June, retains acquisition limits on firms that own 350 or more single-family homes but exempts certain transactions and does not require the sale of existing holdings.
“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,” Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said in a statement, citing data that shows the U.S. was short 4.03 million homes in 2025.
“Policy choices matter: States in the South and Midwest lead on affordability and homebuilding, while many states in the West and Northeast, where zoning and land-use rules tend to be more restrictive, continue to lag,” Berner added.
Mortgage and housing finance provisions
The legislation leans more heavily toward affordable rental housing than homeownership but includes several provisions that directly affect the mortgage industry.
Among them are a pilot program for small-dollar mortgages below $100,000, a required report on how loan originator compensation rules affect the availability of small-dollar mortgages, and a provision aimed at strengthening the appraiser workforce.
The bill also increases Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily statutory loan limits for the first time since 2003 and authorizes a Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery program for three years.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which commended the bill’s passage, backed reforms to the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service program tied to financing of accessory dwelling units and loan assumptions. The trade group also supported language to codify Fannie Mae‘s and Freddie Mac’s reconsideration-of-value appraisal processes without increasing lender liability.
“MBA applauds the bipartisan majority of lawmakers in both the House and Senate who voted in favor of this legislation this week, demonstrating a shared commitment to advancing practical solutions that address our nation’s housing challenges,” Bob Broeksmit, the trade group’s president and CEO, said Tuesday night in a statement. “Their work, alongside the leadership of Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee members and the Trump administration, helped forge consensus around 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,” he added. “We look forward to President Trump signing this legislation into law and will continue working with Congress and the Administration to advance additional legislative and regulatory reforms that improve housing affordability, increase housing production, lower closing costs, and expand homeownership and rental opportunities.”
When the bill was before the Senate, the MBA continued to question the costs of “first look” programs that initially offer foreclosed homes to owner-occupants or nonprofits while also supporting language that narrowed the time requirements and coverage of those programs.
The MBA also said it would work with regulators on implementation of the VALID Act provision, which is designed to increase awareness of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) home loan options by revising the FHA single-family Informed Consumer Choice Disclosure form.
