A huge bipartisan majority in the U.S. House voted on Wednesday to pass legislation styled the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which, most significantly, and controversially, would restrict the ability of large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.
The House version of the bill, which passed by a 396-13 vote, would also establish a program to convert abandoned buildings into housing developments, increase capacity for banks to invest in affordable housing development, and the House version includes a provision to ensure workers on federally funded housing projects are paid prevailing wages.
The compromise legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate – and then, possibly, to a conference committee, if the Senate comes back with changes.
The White House is putting pressure on Congress to get a bill to the president, who issued an executive order in January to limit private equity firms from being able to purchase single-family homes.
Trump, doing the right thing on something meaningful.
Did not have that on my bingo card.
“The administration strongly supports passage of this bill and urges the Senate to take up and pass this legislation. The administration requests both chambers resolve any remaining differences expeditiously,” the Trump White House said in a statement.
The shortage of homes nationwide has real-estate prices soaring, as we reported today with news on the latest Virginia Home Sales Report from the Virginia Association of REALTORS®, which had the statewide median sales price in April at $439,945.
The quick math on that has a monthly mortgage on a $439,945 home running in the range of $2,600 to $3,500.
You’d need a household income at around $110,000 a year to be able to afford the lower end of that.
Median household income in Virginia is in the $92,000-a-year range.
Realtor.com estimates that there’s a 4 million housing unit gap between available housing and the demand for housing.
Here in my backyard, in Waynesboro, a 2023 analysis completed by the Virginia Tech Center for Housing Research put the rental vacancy rate at a miniscule 1.8 percent, which you would define as a seller’s market – with low inventories, property owners can essentially name their price.
ICYMI
- Waynesboro: Leaders make no-brainer move to support affordable housing
- Waynesboro: The politics that might kill a needed affordable-housing project
- Waynesboro: Number of unhoused seeking shelter up dramatically
“House passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is a big win for Virginia families,” Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline said in a statement posted to his socials. “By cutting red tape, incentivizing developments, and increasing lending opportunities, this bill will make it easier and cheaper to build in Virginia. Young families deserve the chance to achieve the American Dream of homeownership.”
Trump, and now Ben Cline, doing the right thing.
Wow.
“Housing costs, in particular, are high on the list of the most important challenges affecting my Northern Virginia constituents, and I’m thrilled to see this bill advance,” Northern Virginia Congressman Don Beyer said.
“The strong bipartisan vote should help ensure that this version of the bill passes in the Senate and gets signed into law,” Beyer said.
And now, Don Beyer, Ben Cline and Donald Trump, all on the same on an issue.
Human sacrifice, cats and dogs, living together, mass hysteria, indeed.
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Chris Graham
