In a twist rare enough to make even the most seasoned Washington insiders do a double-take, a major housing bill has become law without the President’s signature. This event hasn’t happened since the year disco ruled the airwaves in 1975. The aptly named Road to Housing Act has gained a legal foothold as it aims to boost housing availability and drop construction costs, all while President Trump, ever the deal maker, held back his signature. Why, you ask? It seems he was trying to nudge Congress along his preferred path with the Save America Act. What a twist! This leaves one wondering if he lost his pen or merely decided not to waste ink on a law that was going to make it into the books anyway.
House Financial Services Chairman French Hill, one of the primary architects of this bill, was quick to downplay any disappointment. He empathized with the President’s well-worn frustrations with the Senate, hinting that chief executives have been feeling this way since the founding fathers started this whole thing we call democracy. Hill conveys his belief in the Road to Housing Act’s potential to lower housing costs and actually make housing accessible again. Among its highlights is a part aimed straight at those institutional investors who casually outbid the average mom and dad trying to clinch that white picket fence dream, straight from a wish list requested by Trump himself.
Over at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Scott Turner proposes another narrative. The kind of narrative that blends housing prices with a little bit of immigration policy. According to Turner, people strolling across the border have added rocket fuel to housing and rental prices, swelling them by 30% and 20%, respectively. He pointedly emphasizes that houses in America are intended for American people only, a remark sure to get a few grumbles south of the Rio Grande. And just like that, the conversation ropes in everyone’s favorite talking point: the border.
Meanwhile, back in Congress, French Hill is firmly standing by the account that inflation under Joe Biden played no small part in this housing mess. He points a finger at the astronomical rise in prices during Biden’s tenure, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in a solid forty years. Inflation pushed component prices through the roof, adding to costs throughout the housing supply chain. Hill maintains that the newly enacted law is a multi-pronged approach that focuses on more than just building supply. It promises to add more flexibility to government rules, encourages development in opportunity zones, and perhaps most importantly, it hopes to convince banks to loosen those purse strings.
Once upon a time, in a world that seems long gone, a million-dollar house was a sign you’d hit the jackpot. Now, it barely has you keeping up with the neighbors in a slew of U.S. cities. Just two years ago, a reasonably priced home for most Americans didn’t breach the $1,000,000 line in 242 cities. Now, with the new bill, there’s a shred of hope on the horizon. By hacking away at red tape and particularly pointless environmental reviews, the aim is to help prices back down to earth. Where it will all land is anyone’s guess, but in an era where the dream house starts at 40, Congress hopes new laws will help first-time buyers rewind the clock to a more reasonable age of around 30. Because, after all, having a home is not just a dream, but allegedly the American one.
