Trump's Trials - House passes bipartisan home affordability bill

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Republicans and Democrats in the House voted Wednesday to pass a bill to address the nation's housing affordability crisis. It encourages homebuilding across the country and would ban corporate landlords from buying up more than 350 houses. NPR's Stephan Bisaha reports.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. The president has both an ability and a willingness to use the power of his office, to think outside the box. Nobody makes a better deal than President Trump. We're going to do better and better and better. Nobody can believe what they're watching. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power.

Here's the latest from NPR. May Martinez. The largest housing affordability bill in decades past the house on Wednesday. It had huge bipartisan support. NPR Stephen Besaha tells us why both parties are behind it. Have you seen the price of homes lately? The median sales price is about $400,000, way more than the typical American family can afford. Everyone recognizes that, hey, we need to do something about housing affordability.

Ross Marchand is the head of the taxpayer-partisan, Action Alliance, a right-leaning think tank. We have an entire generation of Americans that are priced out of owning their own home. I mean, that's a crisis and that's inexcusable. The 21st century Road to Housing Act tries to address this by encouraging more homebuilding. That boosts supply and lowers prices. And the bill does that by clearing out little bits of red tape. Like, if you want to build a house between two that already got an environmental review,

you would not need a new one. Are there some environmental restrictions that should be maintained? Absolutely. But as it is written right now, these local codes, it is out of control. I couldn't agree with some more. Lori Goodman is the founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the left-leaning Urban Institute. She says local codes can get in the way of building housing, like manufactured homes. The bill makes it so they could use one national code instead. Goodman says that would amp up construction.

by allowing, you know, a factory in Pennsylvania to ship to a home in New York. The bill also bans any group that owns 350 or more houses from buying up anymore. The concern is that these corporate landlords can outbid American families. But Goodman thinks banning large-scale investors is overkill. They actually own a very small share of single-family homes. Ross Marchand does like that the ban has some exceptions, like allowing corporate investors to build new homes for rent. We need 4 million new homes to keep up with demand.

That's the figure given by Realtor.com for the housing gap. The Senate passed its own version of this bill a few months ago and now heads back to them to consider for final passage. Stephen Besahah, NPR News. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political report.

break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thank you for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.