21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Explained: Big Bill, Small Impact?

Anthony Lamacchia:

The new housing bill finally passed and went into law on Friday night because it hit the 10-day period that it was sitting with the president and he refused to sign it. NAR says landmark housing bill clears Congress. This was two weeks ago.

The 21st Century Road to Housing Act. New York Times. What’s in the housing bill that just became law? It’s no great society measure, but the new law offers local governments and builders incentives to make incremental changes.

So I read this whole article. I want to talk to you all about it and give you my five cents. All right.

Number one, am I glad to see that housing has been talked about in the news for the last three weeks despite the fact that the president refused to sign it? Yes, I’m glad. I’m glad to see even him talking about it. I even saw him say nothing will affect housing more than interest rates.

We’ve got to get interest rates down. He’s right. And he made a lot of progress on that in 2025 and then literally blew up his own progress at the end of February 2026.

We’re halfway back to where we were, but we’ve got a long way to go. So let me read some of the comments in this article to give you all kind of an understanding of what is in this 21st Century Road to Housing Act. Number one, it’s the largest housing effort in a generation.

And the reporter says here. And unlikely to do much to blunt the high cost of rent and home ownership in America anytime soon. See, this all goes back to what I’m always saying.

And I said this at the end of my rent control video here in Massachusetts when that disaster of a proposal got blown up weeks back. Until the cities and towns and states, particularly Massachusetts as an example, New York, California, until they make it easier to build and create incentives for builders or the federal government creates incentives for states or even local cities and towns, you’re not going to see prices really get much better, if at all. So that’s kind of some of the talk in here.

Now, let me read more. This is a hodgepodge. It contains a hodgepodge of measures that in various ways aim to speed up building in hopes of backfilling a housing shortage that economists estimate at 1 million to 6 million units, saying we’re about 6 million units short of what should have been built over the last 15 years, right? That makes sense.

And that’s true. Cities and states write most of the regulations that determine what gets built where, while interest rates and other macroeconomic factors hold most of the sway over mortgage costs. Now, hang on.

I’m going to get into some of the positives here in the NAR article, so don’t leave me. The new federal law is not likely to force significant changes in local housing policies. I already mentioned that.

The law sort of acknowledges that the local governments are the ultimate deciders, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me get to some positives. Stay with me.

It does affect a lot of things, and it brings up a number of subjects and it shines a spotlight on housing, which I love, OK? Let me just read off some of it. Spitfire. Here we go.

Housing supply frameworks directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop zoning and land use best practices. So they’re going to make best practices. Very few are going to follow it.

Increasing housing opportunity zones. This is a great thing. I sat in front of the president in January of 2025.

A gentleman, a friend of mine that was with me, he brought up opportunity zones to the president. The president literally called the senator on the phone, Senator Tim Scott from the Carolinas, because he was really the biggest proponent and doer of opportunity zones. They talked about it on the spot.

And to see this get extended and become more clear, many improvements to opportunity zones, that’s a victory. Whole Home Repairs Act supports grants and forgivable loans to preserve and stabilize aging housing stock. OK.

Affordable Housing Construction Eligibility. Build Housing Act. Unlocking housing supply through streamlined reviews.

Yeah, streamlined reviews when it affects something federal. I’ve bought and sold and kept 80-something homes. I’ve never had to go to the feds for approval.

So I don’t know who that’s going to affect. Um, Innovation Fund provides flexibility, flexible funding to communities expanding housing supply and supporting infrastructure. OK.

Accelerating Home Building Act. Reside Act. Housing Affordability Act.

See, these politicians, they love throwing in the affordability word. See, it’s like that bullshit that Mayor Wu throws out when she says, we need, we’re going to make more units affordable. You want to make more units affordable? Get rid of your horrible policies so that we can have cranes back in the sky in Boston and stop scaring away developers.

1. Raising the percentage of forced affordable units only deters developers. Housing Supply Expansion.

Modernizes manufactured housing rules to encourage innovation and expand affordable housing options. Blah, blah, blah. I mean, I can read on and on.

FHA Small Dollar Mortgages. Creates a pilot program to expand access to mortgages of $100,000 or less. That’s definitely going to help in Lawton, Oklahoma and No Man’s Land, Nebraska.

But the majority of the country, and I’m not criticizing those areas. In fact, I think they’re beautiful. But the majority of the country, particularly the coasts, are where the affordability issues are prevalent.

Housing Unhoused Disabled Veterans. I love hearing about things for veterans. Let’s see how it works out.

Veterans Affairs Loans Disclosures. Informed disclosure improves transparency for veteran homebuyers by ensuring they can better compare VA and FHA financing options. If they’re working with a good mortgage broker, they’re going to be able to do that anyway.

So to recap, I like the fact that a housing bill that was bipartisan for once, something bipartisan with all these idiots in Washington that just argue all the time. For once in 60 years, a large housing bill passed. This is wonderful.

I applaud Shannon McCann and all the hardworking folks at the National Association of Realtors for pushing this and working so hard. I think that’s great. There’s a spotlight on housing.

How much of it do I actually think will trickle down to the average homebuyer in Waltham, Massachusetts? I have my concerns, okay? We need to see cities and towns get easier with zoning. We need to see states like the state of Massachusetts to take a chill pill on their unbelievable amount of overly burdensome regulations, such as the different things with respect to energy. This energy efficiency craze has gone too far, okay? So those type of things are the problem.

And yes, we need interest rates to come back down. Whatever has to be done by lawmakers and the president, get on it because that’s what we need more than anything. Thank you all.

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