Good morning, Thread Readers.
For the first time in three decades, Congress passed a major housing bill to bring down costs and make it easier to build. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which we have covered before in the Thread, cleared the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32 this week, and is awaiting President Trump’s signature. When legislators work across the aisle, families are the ones who come out ahead. This win belongs to women and their families, who carry a large share of rising housing costs and increasingly rely on homeownership to build lasting wealth.
As we previously covered in the Thread, The ROAD to Housing Act works on several fronts. It ends the decades-old federal rule that manufactured homes be built on a permanent steel chassis, a change that lowers the cost of a factory-built home and lets it be built and financed more like a traditional house. It speeds environmental reviews for smaller and in-fill projects, pilots small-dollar mortgages of $100,000 or less, and funds a $200 million grant program for localities that ease zoning and permitting to build. It also bars the largest institutional investors, those owning 350 or more single-family homes, from buying still more. Single women have a particular stake, a quarter of first-time buyers last year, more than double the share of single men.
Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), with Representatives French Hill (R-AR) and Maxine Waters (D-CA), led the package, folding in provisions from more than 60 bills, 36 of them bipartisan from the start. Problems this big get solved when both sides keep their ideas on the table and build something together. That is why the votes ran so lopsided, and why we keep saying governing still beats politics.
This one goes to the dynamic duo of the House, Housing and Insurance Subcommittee, Chairman Mike Flood (R-NE) and Ranking Member Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), who helped drive this bipartisan package across the finish line.
Be kind to one another.
