NAMB president hopes bill passage will be the first step
Work continues on Capitol Hill on two housing bills meant to improve housing affordability, although how soon either of those bills will be passed into law is still uncertain.
The House-passed Housing for the 21st Century Act (HR 6644) has now been read twice in the Senate. It is unclear whether the Senate will pass the House bill or if there will need to be some reconciliation with a Senate bill, the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 (S. 2651), which could make it to the full Senate floor soon.
While both bills have critical elements that could help with affordability, one mortgage industry leader said the Senate bill would likely have a more direct impact on the consumer.
Kimber White (pictured top), president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), has spent plenty of time in Washington lobbying for housing reforms to hopefully get some of these critical bills across the finish line.
“Being up on the Hill, the Housing for the 21st Century Act deals more with construction, and more with builders and regulations,” White told Mortgage Professional America. “It really doesn't have a lot for the consumer or the borrower on the affordability side. The ROAD to Housing Act has a little more of that. We're saying that we want to do affordable housing bills, but we're really not putting a lot into affordable housing in any of these bills.”
A good start on housing
White and NAMB are encouraging brokers to reach out to their senators to encourage them to support the ROAD to Housing Act.
“The legislation addresses barriers facing homebuyers by strengthening small-dollar mortgage lending, tackling appraisal shortages and bias, modernizing FHA manufactured housing limits, expanding tax-advantaged down payment savings tools, and protecting veterans from predatory loan practices while increasing awareness of VA benefits,” White said. “These reforms support first-time buyers, rural borrowers, manufactured housing homeowners, and service members, helping more Americans access safe, affordable home financing.”
While he thinks the Senate bill would help the consumer more directly, it doesn’t mean he thinks the House bill is bad. White believes there needs to be more housing supply, which is addressed in the House bill.
However, he wanted to make sure that Congress was acutely aware of the affordability challenges facing homebuyers. That’s why he and NAMB put out a white paper documenting these issues.
“We have to have supply, and it's all the supply side,” White said. “But that's why it was important for NAMB to get out with the white paper. We want people to understand where housing is, understand where the people are with the housing initiatives, and some of the small things that can be done to actually help the markets.”
Continuing the fight
While the House or Senate may decide to pass the other’s bill, there could also be reconciliation between the two bills. White thinks that reconciliation could be a good way to take parts of both bills to help deal with affordability challenges. The process may take some time.
“You need bits and pieces of both,” he said. “I think that the 21st Century Act is more for regulatory issues for builders, and loosening rules on that. I think the ROAD Act has more for the consumer. I think that if we put them together, you've got a good start to housing. I think it's going to take a while. I don't think it's going to be overnight. I think it is definitely going to be a slow roll.”
But White doesn’t think that these pieces of legislation should be the end of the conversation about affordability. He said that’s why NAMB put out its white paper, which includes initiatives reforming loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs), reducing the GSE refinance waiting period, addressing rising credit costs, increasing area median income thresholds, and more.
“I don't know that this legislation is going to be a be-all and end-all, because a lot of it has to be done within the agencies,” White said. “I went and met with FHFA, and we talked about their LLPAs. We talked with them about the need to increase the AMI.”
The work continues for White with more big meetings ahead, both on Capitol Hill and away from Washington. He hopes to continue doing his part to encourage meaningful change so that mortgage affordability won’t be holding back potential homebuyers.
“Our white paper also talked about alternative housing solutions,” he said. “One of my realtors was trying to find financing for a container home. I showed (people in Washington) what container homes were, and they're like, ‘Wow. We've never known what they looked like.’ We’ve got to look at 3D homes. We have to look at modular homes. We've got to look at different programs, and Fannie, Freddie, and all the agencies opening up to alternative types of housing.”
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