A sweeping affordability package met rare bipartisan support – until the investor ban fight.
A landmark housing affordability package that glided through Congress with lopsided bipartisan votes is set to face a far rougher ride in the House, where Republicans raised alarms over a proposed crackdown on large single‑family landlords and president Donald Trump’s broader investor ban push.
The Senate measure, backed by Banking Committee leaders senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, and senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, aims to streamline construction, expand financing and set new limits on institutional buyers of single‑family homes. It cleared a key Senate vote 89–9 and is expected to pass as soon as Thursday before heading back to the House.
At a closed‑door GOP retreat in Florida, House majority leader Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, warned colleagues that the Senate bill in its current form would not simply be rubber‑stamped. “If the Senate thinks we’re gonna take this medicine, we’re gonna go to conference” committee, Scalise said.
House–Senate clash centers on investor limits
Trump urged Congress not only to pass affordability legislation but also to ban major investors and companies from buying single‑family homes. That request arrived too late for the House bill but helped shape Senate language that would prohibit companies from owning more than 350 single‑family properties, with a seven‑year exception for firms that build or substantially renovate homes before selling to noncorporate buyers.
Several House Republicans questioned whether forcing builders to sell new stock within seven years would choke off capital for new construction and constrain agents’ ability to obtain top dollar for sellers.
House Financial Services chair French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, said lawmakers “have communicated the concerns from our members to our Senate colleagues” and “look forward to working to achieve a bicameral success in housing policy that will benefit the American people with growing supply and lower construction costs.”
Scott defended the Senate package as closely aligned with the House version. “Our bill is fantastic. Their bill is good,” he said. “Putting those two together, we have the bicameral approach to housing.”
Broader affordability squeeze and investor debate
The clash landed amid an intensifying affordability crisis rooted in years of underbuilding and surging prices. Estimates of the national housing shortfall ranged from roughly 3.7 million to nearly 5 million homes, depending on methodology, while some advocates cited even higher figures.
Freddie Mac estimated a shortage of about 3.7 million units through 2024, underscoring the depth of the supply gap.
An ATTOM analysis reported that institutional investors bought 6.6% of US homes for the second straight year, with concentrations above 9% in several Southern states, while cash accounted for nearly 40% of 2025 transactions – the highest share since 2013.
Separate BatchData figures showed investors’ share of purchases climbing from 18.5% between 2020 and 2023 to “well over 26%” by 2025, with investor‑owned homes making up about 20% of single‑family stock.
Politics complicates path to passage
The housing bill also became entangled in a separate confrontation over the SAVE America Act, a GOP election overhaul that Trump demanded before signing other legislation.
Senate Majority leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, prepared a floor vote that was all but guaranteed to fail under the chamber’s 60‑vote threshold.
“The votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,” Thune said, casting the move as a necessary demonstration of political reality.
Despite that brinkmanship, Thune indicated he hopes Trump would eventually accept the bipartisan housing package that 89 senators just advanced. Senator John Thune described the housing bill as an effort to “open the door to affordable homes for hard‑working Americans around the country.”
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