Bipartisan home affordability bill passes the House

Business Bipartisan home affordability bill passes the House May 20, 20261:37 PM ET By  Stephan Bisaha House Financial Services Committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA., and Chair French Hill, R-AR., listen to a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 24, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter sent every weekday morning. Republicans and Democrats in the House voted Wednesday to pass a bill to address the nation's housing affordability crisis. It encourages homebuilding across the country and would ban corporate landlords from buying up more than 350 houses. The bill passed 396 to 13, and is an amended version of one passed by the Senate two months earlier. The two chambers still have to agree on a single version before they can send it to the president for his signature. Both parties are eager to show they are taking legislative action ahead of the midterms to deal with the country's housing crisis. A shortage of homes has driven up prices to an average of $400,000, well outside the range of what many Americans can afford. Just getting more homes into the market faster would help ease the shortage, with Realtor.com estimating there's a 4 million unit gap between available housing and the demand. Sponsor Message If passed, this would be the largest piece of housing legislation in decades. Corporate investors won't be able to buy new rental homes… The House's version of the bill says any group that owns more than 350 houses would not be allowed to buy more single-family homes. These corporate landlords have become a sort of bipartisan boogeyman, with legislators expressing concern that they are buying up homes to rent, outbidding American families who can't compete with well-financed investors who can pay all cash. National Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats Research shows that what this does to home prices is mixed: In some cases...