Senate passes housing bill 89-10, banning Wall Street home buying

"The Senate voted 89 to 10 on March 12, 2026, to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, making it one of the most lopsided bipartisan votes in the chamber in years. The bill's co-sponsors, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), represent two of the most politically distant voices in American politics. Their collaboration reflects how acute the housing crisis has become. Median home prices in the United States reached $408,000 in early 2026, up 47% from pre-pandemic levels, and rent inflation has outpaced wage growth in 78 of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas.\n\nThe 89-10 margin is significant because most major Senate legislation in recent years has required procedural fights to reach 60 votes, the threshold to end debate. This bill cleared that hurdle with votes to spare, suggesting that housing affordability has emerged as one of the few issues where voters across the political spectrum agree something is broken."

"The institutional investor ban is the bill's most scrutinized provision. Under the legislation, any investor who owns 350 or more single-family homes is prohibited from buying additional properties. Investors who already exceed that threshold must sell down their holdings within seven years. The provision targets firms like Invitation Homes, Blackstone's residential subsidiaries, and Progress Residential, which collectively own hundreds of thousands of single-family homes across the Sun Belt and Midwest.\n\nCritics of the ban, including libertarian policy groups like the Reason Foundation, argue that institutional landlords account for less than 3% of the single-family rental market and that banning their purchases won't meaningfully increase supply. Supporters, including housing economists at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, counter that even modest reductions in investor competition in high-demand markets have measurable effects on first-time homebuyer access."

"Beyond the investor ban, the bill contains more than 40 distinct provisions aimed at the supply side of the housing market. It creates federal grant programs for state and local governments to fund zoning reform, allowing more housing units per lot and reducing permitting timelines. It expands the definition of what counts as affordable housing under federal programs, making it easier for developments that mix market-rate and subsidized units to qualify for federal funding. It also includes provisions to modernize manufactured housing standards, which advocates say could significantly expand affordable options in rural areas where traditional construction is cost-prohibitive.\n\nThe Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies estimated in a 2024 report that the U.S. faces a structural shortage of roughly 4.5 million homes, a gap that grew steadily over more than a decade of underbuilding following the 2008 financial crisis."

"The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, where its prospects are complicated by several unrelated disputes. House Republicans have attached demands for permanent community bank deregulation and a permanent ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a central bank digital currency. The Senate bill includes the digital currency ban, but only as a temporary measure. Additionally, President Trump issued a statement on March 9, 2026, threatening to refuse to sign any legislation other than the SAVE Act, a voter identification bill, until the Senate passes it first.\n\nSpeaker Mike Johnson has not committed to scheduling a vote on the housing bill, and the House Republican caucus is operating with an especially thin majority after Rep. Kevin Kiley of 🌴California formally left the Republican Party on March 9 to become an independent. The House calendar for spring 2026 is already crowded with Iran war authorization debates and ongoing appropriations fights."

"The political dynamics around housing have shifted notably since the 2024 election. Both parties saw housing costs rank as a top economic issue for voters under 40, and polling from Gallup and Pew Research Center in late 2025 found that more than 60% of Americans, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, support limits on corporate ownership of single-family homes.\n\nState-level action has also been building. In 2025, 🌴California, 🏔️Colorado, and 🦆Minnesota each passed legislation restricting institutional investor purchases of residential properties. 🌽Nebraska and 🏎️Indiana considered similar bills in early 2026 legislative sessions. The federal bill would supersede and standardize those patchwork state approaches if it becomes law."