With home ownership costs at an all-time high in the U.S., some relief may be on the horizon thanks to a major housing bill that cleared Congress on June 23. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed into law on July 11 after President Trump decided neither to sign nor veto the bill. It is one of the largest federal housing‑supply packages in decades.
Housing affordability is a major concern for many Americans. If passed, this housing bill may increase the supply of affordable homes through incentives, funding, and the reduction of some regulatory barriers.
The Housing Supply in the U.S.
For some, homeownership is increasingly out of reach.
According to The State of the Nation's Housing 2026 report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the income needed to afford payments on a median‑priced home was $120,800 at the end of 2025. This is up from $68,700 just five years ago.
Further, starter homes are scarce. The report states that in March 2026, just 23% of listings were affordable to a household earning $75,000 or less, down from 49% in March 2019.
The ROAD to Housing Act is intended to ease these pressures by encouraging the construction of more affordable homes and by reforming several existing federal housing and finance programs.
What Does the ROAD to Housing Act Do?
The omnibus bill contains dozens of measures drawn from more than 60 individual housing proposals. We’ll focus on a few of the most impactful ones below:
Incentives for Local Governments
The bill uses federal funding to encourage cities, counties, and municipalities to adopt policies that allow more housing construction. This includes:
- More flexible zoning rules
- Allowing more multifamily or “missing middle” housing (like duplexes, townhomes, and fourplexes)
- Expedited permitting
- Relaxing some regulatory barriers to encourage new housing development
While the federal government can’t force zoning changes, it can use funding to influence local actions. This is commonly seen in federal housing and transportation law.
The Build Now Act
One major component of the ROAD to Housing Act, the Build Now Act, allocates more federal funding to communities that build more housing. This means that cities and counties that increase their housing production get a larger share of federal dollars. In turn, cities and counties that build less get less.
This is primarily a reallocation of existing federal funding. It’s not a new tax or direct mandate.
Encourages Manufactured Housing
The bill makes it easier and less expensive to build manufactured homes. These prefabricated homes, which are typically built in a factory and then transported on-site, are among the most affordable types of housing. The Act both removes certain outdated requirements (such as a permanent chassis rule for some factory‑built homes) and updates standards like energy‑efficiency benchmarks. Since manufactured housing is heavily regulated at both the federal and state levels, modernizing these rules and expanding federal support may help expand the supply more quickly.
Restrictions for Large Institutional Investors
The bill includes a scaled‑back version of a proposal to restrict private equity firms from buying up single‑family homes. The final version of the bill allows large investors to keep the homes they already own. But investors owning more than 350 homes are prohibited from making future purchases of most additional single‑family homes, with limited exceptions such as certain build‑to‑rent projects.
This represents a restriction on future purchases of single-family homes for some investors, not forced sales of property already purchased.
In short, the bill aims to increase supply, which economists generally agree is often an effective way to lower housing costs.
What the ROAD to Housing Act Doesn’t Do
This bill won’t solve the housing crisis in the U.S. While it addresses the housing shortage, it doesn’t impact high mortgage rates or the rising cost of homes.
Mortgage rates generally move with the yield on the 10‑year Treasury note. This benchmark is shaped by broader market forces and the Federal Reserve, which sets interest rates and regulates financial markets in the U.S.
It also does not force municipalities to change zoning laws to allow for more residential housing. This is constitutionally important because land‑use regulation is primarily a state and local power. Instead, the bill uses voluntary incentives.
What Does This Mean for Future Homeowners?
Ideally, the bill makes homeownership more attainable for Americans by expanding the number of affordable “entry-level” homes in the housing market. By expanding access to smaller mortgages and reforming HUD and FHA programs, it is intended to make it easier for moderate‑income buyers to finance entry‑level homes. Specific down payment‑assistance details will depend on how agencies implement the law, and may overlap with existing assistance programs rather than creating an entirely new standalone benefit.
But the bill still awaits the president’s signature. Until then, nothing changes for buyers, sellers, or builders.
