What is the Housing for the 21st Century Act?

The House recently passed a bipartisan housing bill aimed at building more homes and easing high prices, a rare point of agreement in a deeply divided Congress. If you’re hoping to buy in the next year or two, this could matter more than you think — especially if money is tight.

As a mortgage writer, I fall back on this familiar advice: Stick to your budget and the right house will pop up in its own time.

That isn’t wrong. But it is incomplete.

For a lot of would-be buyers, the housing market feels locked — like the door to homeownership is right there, but the key keeps changing. In my new series “Locked Out,” I’m looking at what’s actually bolting the door shut and whether any ideas floating around could help pry it open.

Let’s start with this legislation.

On Feb. 9, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Housing for the 21st Century Act, a comprehensive package of changes to increase the supply of affordable housing. Nationally, the housing market is short millions of homes. The bill addresses ways to build housing across the spectrum, including single-family homes, multifamily homes (like duplexes), apartment buildings and factory-built homes.

Washington can’t fix everything, but it does control federal red tape that can slow housing projects. The Housing for the 21st Century Act aims to cut through that by:

Simply put, it’s about making things run smoother and using existing dollars wisely — not spending more money. The Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House in a decisive, bipartisan vote of 390-9. It advanced to the Senate for consideration on Feb. 11.

In the Senate, the House plan will come up against the Senate’s own bipartisan housing bill: The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act.

The ROAD to Housing Act has some unique ideas that aren’t in the House’s plan, like unlocking grant funds to finance home and infrastructure repairs (like water and sewer lines). It also incentivizes housing construction near public transit and in Opportunity Zones, which are low-income areas that offer tax breaks to spur development.

But overall, if it sounds like these two bills are pretty similar … well, they are. Nearly half of the provisions in the Housing for the 21st Century Act overlap with the ROAD to Housing Act, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

From here, the Senate is expected to work out the differences between the two bills and combine all pending ideas into one plan. Both chambers must approve the same final version before it can go to the president’s desk.

Supporters say this legislation targets a key root cause — the supply crunch — by making it easier and cheaper to build. But new homes take months to permit and construct, so it could take years for buyers to notice any improvement in the market.

The bills propose ways to make construction happen faster, like removing regulations in the permitting process. But critics warn that could weaken environmental reviews, putting new homes at risk of flooding, wildfires or pollution.

As of right now, both bills omit a presidential housing priority: banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Even if added, it likely wouldn’t boost inventory much — large investors make up less than 2% of the single-family rental market, estimates the Brookings Institution. However, its inclusion might be a sticking point for President Trump, who can veto the bill.

As of this week, the Senate has formally taken up the Housing for the 21st Century Act but not yet held a final vote, though one could happen in the coming weeks as negotiations unfold.

Outside Washington, the pressure isn’t easing for frustrated home buyers. Since 2019, home prices have risen more than twice as fast as paychecks, reports the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. While price growth has slowed in the past year, buyers still feel the squeeze of pandemic-era price surges. Roughly 3 in 5 Americans (61%) say starter homes don’t even exist anymore, according to a recent NerdWallet survey conducted online by The Harris Poll.

The housing crisis is one of the few issues where lawmakers on both sides agree action is overdue. While the Senate reviews the Housing for the 21st Century Act, that sense of urgency could speed things along.

For now, it’s just a bill on Capitol Hill, and proposals don’t mean much unless they become law. Even if that happens, it is unlikely to make things easier if you’re trying to buy a house this spring or summer. The earliest signs of change could show up within a year as more homes break ground and hit the market. Broader affordability relief, like lower prices, would take longer to filter through — and buyers would still be at the mercy of mortgage rates.