Congress passes housing bill but Trump delays signing, demanding SAVE Act first

What happened

The House of Representatives approved the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Tuesday by a vote of 358 to 32. The Senate had passed it on Monday, 85 to 5, sending the package to President Donald J. Trump. Trump had planned to sign the bill at noon on Wednesday but cancelled the event with less than 90 minutes to go.

A White House official confirmed the delay, and Trump said Congress must first pass the SAVE America Act, which includes voter ID regulations and limits on transgender rights. The president's move injects fresh uncertainty into a bill that had drawn rare bipartisan momentum.

What the bill does

The roughly 380-page package contains more than 50 provisions designed to spur construction and boost supply. Among the main measures, institutional investors would be barred from owning more than 350 single-family homes in a given area, a cap President Trump backed. Environmental reviews for building projects would be waived or sped up, and localities that permit more housing would receive a larger share of certain federal grants.

America is facing a housing supply shortage that's been years in the making.

The bill also updates banking rules to make it easier for lower-income households to obtain mortgages. It does not, however, address the high mortgage rates or elevated home prices that remain the most immediate obstacles for buyers.

Political calculations before the midterms

With less than five months until November's elections, both parties are claiming credit. Republicans, holding a governing trifecta, point to the bill as proof they can deliver. Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio contrasted the outcome with the tenure of former Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.

Democrats secured populist measures they have long championed, notably the investor-ownership cap, which Senator Elizabeth Warren called a priority.

This bill helps us demonstrate our commitment to bringing down costs. We're not in the majority, but we got in there and fought for 47 different provisions to lower costs for American families and to beat back private equity, and we made it happen. That's a pretty big win.

Housing market realities

The legislative drive comes against a bleak affordability backdrop. The median price of a new U.S. home stood at $424,900 in May, while Zillow reports a typical existing-home value of $370,320. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.47% the week before the vote. New single-family home sales fell 7.3% in May to an annualized 580,000, the lowest since the start of 2026.

You can't oversell the impact of the bill, but I think it is going to have a positive impact over time.

Estimates of the national housing shortage range from one million to nearly six million units, according to Shea.

Will it work fast enough?

Experts note that building rules are largely set at the state and local level, meaning the federal package will take years to filter down. Ed Brady, the Home Builders Institute CEO, said it was unclear how much change the legislation would actually produce. John Letteri of the Economic Innovation Group called it "demonstrable progress" but warned it was not a "magic fix-it-all button."

Voters, meanwhile, remain impatient. A survey released Tuesday showed that a majority of Americans now prefer buying over renting for the first time since 2023, yet high costs and elevated inflation during Trump's second term have left household budgets strained.