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By Giulia Carbonaro
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Bipartisan legislation trying to boost the country's supply of homes is moving through the legislature and drawing praise from industry insiders. Supporters are hailing the package as a significant step toward solving the ongoing housing affordability crisis in the U.S.
The package, known as the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, is led by Senator Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat. It contains directions to increase the nation's housing supply, encourage construction, improve affordability, and increase oversight and efficiency of federal regulators and housing programs.
These measures should help make housing more affordable after skyrocketing prices and historically elevated mortgage rates over the past five years have pushed homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans.
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The bill, which represents the most substantial housing package since the 1990s, unanimously passed the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. It was a historic markup for the committee, which hadn't held one on housing in roughly 17 years.
What Is in the Bill?
The bipartisan legislation tries to tackle the main reason behind the unprecedented surge in home prices which followed the outbreak of the pandemic—a chronic lack of inventory across the U.S, the result of underbuilding after the subprime mortgage crisis which started in 2007.
"Decades of underbuilding have left us more than 4.7 million homes short, and families are paying the price," Shannon McGahn, the executive vice president and chief advocacy officer at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), told Newsweek.
"Provisions like the Housing Supply Frameworks Act, the Accelerating Home Building Act, and the Streamlining Rural Housing Act are designed to reduce red tape, modernize outdated review processes, and give communities the tools they need to build more housing," she said. "These targeted investments and reforms can expand housing supply across the board, whether it's single-family homes, multifamily developments, or manufactured housing."
A very important part of the 315-page bill is Section 203, which directs the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to "develop best practice frameworks for zoning and land-use policies, helping communities identify and overcome barriers to housing development."
Zoning laws have often been blamed for slowing down or altogether halting new construction projects in states like California, which are strictly regulated. Under the bill pushed forward by Senators Scott and Warren, pro-housing state and local politicians would be able to refer to a national template for zoning laws to fight against strict rules in their jurisdictions.
Sections 207 and 208 also aim to streamline construction by cutting down on red tape around environmental restrictions. This is in line with what state lawmakers are already doing: in California, Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed two bills scaling back the state's environmental restrictions to allow for more housing development.
"Zoning regulations are the key barrier to building more housing, but it's unknown whether creating these guidelines would result in jurisdictions actually adopting different zoning rules," Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin, told Newsweek. "Everything else in the bill is also aimed at reducing barriers to building housing which in sum total could have a large impact but the potential for impact of each component is smaller."
What Impact Will It Have on Homebuyers?
Housing has become increasingly unaffordable for Americans in recent years. Prices have surged by double digits since the pandemic, when low mortgage rates spurred a homebuying frenzy across the country and buyers engaged in ruthless bidding wars while fighting for very limited inventory.
Historically high mortgage rates, which have spiked in 2022 as a result of the Federal Reserve's aggressive campaign to reduce inflation, have further eroded Americans' purchase power. As of June, the latest data available, the median sale price of a typical U.S. home was $447,054, according to Redfin, and the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.8 percent.
Additionally, other rising costs—including higher property taxes, home insurance premiums, and homeowners association (HOA) fees—are making homeownership more expensive than ever for those who can afford to buy a home in the first place.
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"Housing is the #1 monthly expense for families across the U.S," Warren wrote on X on Tuesday. "The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs unanimously passed landmark legislation that will boost supply, reduce homelessness, and expand homeownership nationwide."
A majority of housing experts and pro-housing advocates have rallied around the package, saying that the bill would be able to unlock the current standstill in the housing market, where buyers are being solidly kept to the sidelines by rising costs.
"The ROAD to Housing Act would increase housing inventory by streamlining regulatory barriers, making it faster and cheaper to build homes. It also offers pilot grants and flexible funding to incentivize localities to permit new home construction," Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, told Newsweek.
"Additionally, it promotes new home types, such as prefabricated and modular housing, by updating regulations that limit these lower-cost, scalable construction types," she added.
Increasing home supply can help relieve some affordability challenges by taking pressure off home prices, Jones said. On top of that, the bill has provisions for expanding rental assistance and opening up homeownership to lower-income households via small-dollar mortgage reforms.
McGahn believed the bill would be able to improve affordability by going "straight to the source" and improving supply. "NAR research shows that home prices have continued to rise in over 80 percent of U.S. metro areas this year, keeping millions of families locked out of the market," she said.
"By expanding supply and cutting costs tied to development delays, the ROAD to Housing Act can ease pressure on prices and open doors for more buyers," McGahn continued. "It also improves financing access through measures like the Small Dollar Loan and Appraisal Modernization provisions, giving more families, especially first-time and underserved buyers, a fair shot at homeownership."
The American Planning Association (APA) Advocates, which has publicly expressed its support for the bill, said that "the ROAD To Housing Act is the first step in tackling housing affordability in communities throughout the nation." On X, it wrote: "As a result of bipartisan compromise, federal support for locally led reforms will reduce regulatory barriers to increasing housing supply and attainability for all."
The U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote a letter to Sens. Scott and Warren expressing their appreciation for their initiative, saying that "America's mayors know firsthand that a challenge as great and wide spread as housing affordability needs a comprehensive response."
According to the mayors, the bill "lays the groundwork to address the nation's urgent need to boost housing supply, improve housing affordability, and increase oversight and efficiency of federal regulators and housing programs."
"Homeownership is a hallmark of the American dream. The ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 is a great first step to making that dream a reality," Sen. Katye Boyd Britt of Alabama wrote on X on Tuesday.
In a statement shared with Newsweek, Chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Buddy Hughes said: "Building more homes is the only way to ease America's housing affordability crisis and the ROAD to Housing Act includes favorable provisions aimed at zoning and land-use policies, rural housing and multifamily housing that will stimulate construction of sorely needed housing."
'No Game-Changer'
While hailing the move as a step forward, several experts are wary of the fact that the bill is unlikely to single-handedly fix the housing affordability crisis in the country.
Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, wrote on X that the bill is: "no game-changer, but policymakers are finally in the game."
Jones believed that to fully realize the ROAD to Housing Act's potential, "state and local governments must align with federal efforts by revisiting zoning laws, fast-tracking permitting, and adopting funding or grants to support new construction," she told Newsweek. "Areas must also ensure infrastructure readiness (e.g., transit, utilities) to support any population growth resulting from increased home supply. Strong local incentives to use the bill's pilot programs would also aid large-scale impact."
"Local follow-through will make or break this bill's success," McGahn said. "State and local leaders must use these tools, especially zoning reforms and permitting modernization, to drive real change on the ground."
"We probably need the bill to go further to really address the housing crisis, but any step in the right direction is helpful," Zhao said. "Ultimately, state and local governments need to actually change their zoning rules in order to allow for more dense housing in order to address the affordability crisis and it is unknown whether this bill would accomplish that."
In a statement reported by Housing Wire, Isaac Boltansky, the head of public policy at Pennymac, said: "This bill is a welcome step in the right direction. It's not a panacea, but it moves the ball forward on supply, affordability and program efficiency. With a few targeted fixes, especially relating to appraisals, it has real potential to become law and deliver meaningful improvements across the housing landscape."
In a letter to Sens. Scott and Warren, America's Credit Unions, a national trade association for both state- and federally chartered credit unions located in the U.S., said that more efforts should be made by federal lawmakers to allow credit unions to offer longer loan terms.
Update 7/31/25, 4:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Hannah Jones of Realtor.com and Shannon McGahn of NAR.
Update 8/1/25, 9:35 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments from Zhao.
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