July 14, 2026
Called the most significant housing legislation in 36 years, the new 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act can be summed up in a word that has nothing to do with the industry, and everything to do with spaghetti. Meatball.
That’s the word Sen. Elizabeth Warren used to describe the law because it includes provisions designed to address a wide range of housing issues. Although the act wasn’t signed by President Donald Trump, it automatically became law on July 11, after Congress sent the bill to his desk on June 29.
Because the bill cleared Congress with a veto-proof supermajority—passing 85-5 in the Senate and 358-32 in the House—it automatically advanced into law under Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution after sitting on the president's desk for 10 days (excluding Sundays) without a signature or a veto.
The new law combines a total of 47 proposals aimed at increasing housing supply, reducing costs and expanding access to affordable homes. It aims to:
● loosen federal regulations, making it easier, faster and cheaper to build
● eases lending rules; rewards communities that build
● delivers aid to communities reeling from disasters
● limits the role institutional investors can play in the market.
"Think of this bill like a meatball," Warren told NPR earlier this year. "It's got a lot of different ingredients in it, but it's the fact that it’s all there together what makes it so delicious.”
So, if this new housing act is a meatball, imagine a tantalizing delicacy made of beef, Italian breadcrumbs, a little grape jelly and some chili sauce.
The chili sauce is definitely the provision that would have required purpose-built single-family rental homes to be sold within seven years. The House stripped that proposal from the initial bill despite support from Trump and the Senate, and the Senate ultimately compromised.
The National Association of Home Builders championed that decision and a massive lobbying effort on June 10 that it believes spurred passage of the act. The NAHB brought more than 1,100 builders, remodelers and other housing industry professionals lobbied on Capitol Hill with a message about the sale mandate.
“NAHB applauds lawmakers for working together in a bipartisan, bicameral effort to pass historic housing legislation that will deliver real benefits for the American people,” said Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio.
“The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will help increase the nation’s housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers and encouraging local governments to reform zoning and land-use policies that have limited home building,” Owens added. “By expanding homeownership and rental housing opportunities nationwide, this legislation will help ease the housing affordability crisis.”
The bill also seeks to boost housing production, including increasing Federal Housing Administration-insured multifamily loan limits and establishing guidelines for zoning and land-use policies.
To boost the affordable housing industry, the bill will increase banks’ public welfare investment (PWI) cap from 15% to 20%, which would provide additional capacity for banks to invest in affordable housing developments.
Despite bipartisan support from both houses of Congress, the bill is not without critics. Questions abound regarding implementation of new policies and whether it did enough to address affordable housing.