America has a new housing affordability law
The bill became law on Saturday despite President Trump’s refusal to sign it “in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” his voter ID bill.
“To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn,” Trump told reporters last month.
Since Trump didn’t veto the bill, it became law automatically 10 days after it was sent to his desk.
“I’m so excited to talk about actual policy,” said congressional reporter Lisa Dejardins on the PBS NewsHour.
“A lot of what you’re seeing in the bill is catch-up on 30 years of policy that has been stalled because Congress hasn’t had the bandwidth to do any housing legislation,” says Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. “It is the kind of thoughtful legislating that Congress used to do all the time but now never does.”
The final bill incorporates provisions from more than 60 pieces of legislation introduced in the House, Senate, or both chambers — 36 of which were introduced with bipartisan sponsors, says the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The bill passed the Senate 85-5 and the House 358–32.
“Despite Trump downplaying the law, it includes an idea he promoted: capping how many single-family homes big investors can buy,” says NPR. “The law says corporate landlords that own at least 350 houses won’t be able to buy more. The goal is to make the housing market more competitive for individual buyers, who are often outbid by investors who can make all-cash offers.”
Trump had signed an executive order in January “to restrict private equity firms’ ability to purchase single-family homes,” said the Independent Community Bankers of America.
“It is exciting to see lawmakers across the political spectrum act with such urgency to address our country’s ongoing housing crisis and the role that private equity and other corporate landlords are playing in it. The ROAD to Housing Act is an important first step to putting housing back in the hands of the people, not corporations. But this legislation cannot be the only step Congress takes to hold Wall Street landlords accountable,” says Jim Baker, executive director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
“While the ROAD to Housing Act restricts corporate ownership of single-family homes, this legislation doesn’t address the many other forms of housing owned by private equity landlords. Private equity firms own 13 percent of all U.S. apartments and hundreds of thousands of manufactured housing sites across the country. Right now, tenants of private equity-owned rentals – whether single-family, multi-family, or manufactured housing – are experiencing exorbitant rent hikes, junk fees, neglected maintenance, and worse. Tenants sorely need legislation to meaningfully address the many harms caused by private equity landlords,” Baker says.
The law also “will help expand 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,” according to Bill Owens, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.
Another provision is intended to reduce barriers to manufactured housing and encourage broader use of factory-built homes, which often are among the least expensive paths to home ownership, says CNBC.
Specifically, the bill expands the federal definition of “manufactured home” to include those that are built without a permanent steel chassis, the metal frame under manufactured and mobile homes that enable easy transportation with a tow truck. However, few of the homes are moved, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Among other benefits, the chassis requirement could cut the cost of a manufactured home by $5,000 to $10,000, which could put home ownership within reach for more families, according to the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
The law also creates a four-year pilot program to expand the availability of small mortgages under $100,000, which some lenders avoid because of compliance costs. Supporters say improving access to smaller loans could help buyers in lower-cost markets and people buying less expensive homes.
The pilot program includes paying lenders a subsidy to originate the smaller mortgages and providing borrower grants for down payments and closing costs.
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