Marty Green sees LO comp, entry-level supply, and rehab financing as next-round items
Democrats flipped both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, setting up divided government with a Republican in the White House.
Early Tuesday, facing the possibility of a Democratic Congress, President Donald Trump said he would become "Mr. Veto." In late-night interviews as the results came in, he said Democrats did a "good job" and that there were issues he could work with the party to pass.
Housing is one of the few areas where the two parties have recently worked together. That could leave room for a new housing bill, and the industry already has a list of what it would want in it.
Marty Green (pictured top), an attorney and principal at Polunsky Beitel Green, sees housing as one of the easier places for the two parties to meet.
"That one thing that both parties can agree on is housing, isn't it?" Green told Mortgage Professional America.
Where the parties agree
Affordability, a term used both in the housing market and in the broader economy in 2026, was one issue voters had on their minds when they went to the polls. The Associated Press’ exit polls showed around 4 in 10 voters said the economy was the top issue facing the country, with roughly half of voters saying the cost of living was “crucial” to their vote for Congress.
Housing affordability has been a focus throughout 2026, with bipartisan housing legislation and two executive orders.
Green pointed to the Road to Housing Act as proof that Congress can still agree on something. He said that is why a second bill could move.
"They haven't enacted much other significant legislation, so it continues to be an area where there is bipartisan support and the ability for the two parties to work together to come up with solutions that can help everyday Americans," he said. "Particularly those that are really, really struggling to buy a home in today's market."
Industry leaders have already begun conversations on Capitol Hill as to what they'd like to see in the next housing legislation. Green thought the Road to Housing Act and the Oct. 22 executive order were good first steps, with more possible.
"When you look at divided government, you look at these kinds of policies and these kinds of things and how they might be expanded," Green said. "Those might be some easy wins to do on a bipartisan basis. So it's encouraging when you see the Road to Housing Act followed by this executive order, understanding those may just be first steps and then maybe we get something even broader going forward."
What could come next
Loan officer compensation could be a harder sell with Democrats, Green said, because they may see some possibility for abuses. He sees a narrower version of the idea as the easier path.
"At least being able to meet competition is really, really important," he said. "If that's presented in the right way, you could definitely get some bipartisan support with respect to it."
On supply, he said lawmakers could look at incentives for companies to build more entry-level housing. He also pointed to factory-built housing as a way to add variety to inventory, an area the executive order's task force will study.
"I think that they can do that not only on the manufactured housing side, but also on various prefab types of construction that may be a lot less expensive than the traditional stick-built," he said.
Foreclosures working their way through the system could return some homes to the entry-level market, he said, though he called that a terribly sad thing for the people affected.
Rehab is the other item he expects to see. The country has aging inventory, and the question is how to keep it from falling out of use.
"How do we encourage people to get that and keep that online and improve that so that that housing stock doesn't become more dilapidated and ultimately just out of use as a result of that?" Green said.
Something like 200,000 homes a year go out of commission, he estimated, either torn down or too dilapidated to live in. If that number rises, builders would have to speed up, he said, and the question is whether they can do it affordably.
Return-to-office demands have made it harder for workers to move to smaller towns where homes cost less, he said. Cities that let vacant houses decay, he added, see property values fall across the whole community.
"There's a mismatch of where the inventory is versus where we want it to be, and that's one of the problems," Green said.
Housing will stay in the forefront for as long as the sector struggles, he said. He tied that to the broader economy.
"There's such a great multiplier effect when you do have increased housing activity in terms of the overall economic growth," Green said.
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