The Senate passed a bipartisan housing bill 85-5 that claims to crack down on Wall Street landlords while letting each firm keep 350 single-family homes and quietly killing the only provision that would have forced them to sell.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act heads to the House this week after months of negotiations between Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Both are calling it the most significant housing legislation in three decades. What they aren't advertising is what got stripped out: a Senate provision that would have required institutional investors to sell newly constructed homes within seven years. That mandate is gone from the final text.
Instead, the bill caps each Wall Street firm at 350 single-family homes. That's not a ban — that's a portfolio limit most Americans would still call a landlord empire. Warren told the AP the bill blocks private equity from "trying to turn housing into one more Wall Street investment," but the text permits exactly that, just with a ceiling.
The follow-the-money picture is straightforward. The bill streams federal block grants to states and local governments that build more housing, streamlines environmental reviews to speed construction, and revamps a USDA rural housing program. Who benefits from accelerated reviews and new grant money? Developers and the builders who've been lobbying for exactly these changes. The bill is a compilation of 36 Senate measures and 11 House measures — a legislative Christmas tree with something for every industry that wrote in.
Then there's the sweetener nobody on the floor wanted to talk about. Tucked into the package is a four-year ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a central bank digital currency, running through the end of 2030. After that, the Fed would need explicit congressional authorization to pursue a digital dollar. Decrypt reported that the CBDC provision was attached specifically to win over House Republicans and hurry the package along. The language carves out private stablecoins — leaving issuers like Circle and Tether untouched. There is no active federal CBDC effort; Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 blocking one. The ban is a political trophy, not a response to an active threat.
The housing numbers explain the political urgency. The Economic Report of the President found a shortage of 10 million homes. A Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report found existing home sales at three-decade lows. The average home now costs more than $500,000 — up from $150,000 in 1990, as Warren noted on the floor. The average first-time buyer is 40 years old. The 30-year fixed mortgage sits at 6.47%. Median rent remains 17.2% above pre-pandemic levels despite nearly three years of declines.
Both parties want something tangible to show voters before November. Scott said the bill would "lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape." Warren said it proves "bipartisan legislation doesn't have to be the weakest, most milquetoast agreement."
The question neither answered: if Wall Street firms can still own 350 homes each, if the forced sell-off is dead, and if the grant money flows through the same channels that have been failing to produce affordable housing for a generation — what exactly changes for the 40-year-old trying to buy a first home?
