US Senate passes bipartisan bill to lower housing costs

The Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan measure aimed at lowering housing costs by streamlining construction and permitting, ending months of fraught negotiations on a priority for both parties ahead of November’s midterm elections. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act would limit investors’ ability to buy homes, waives some federal permitting rules in a bid to ease new construction, and authorizes pilot programs to facilitate grants for home improvements and planning affordable housing. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, with a vote of 85-5, and now heads to the House of Representatives. The legislation comes as Democrats and Republicans prepare for November’s midterm elections, in which concerns about affordability are expected to loom large in the minds of the voters who will decide control of Congress for the final two years of Donald Trump’s term. A shortfall in construction of new homes is seen as a key driver of housing costs, which have crept higher in recent years. Last year, House and Senate lawmakers began working on legislation that could draw the bipartisan support needed to pass, but wound up producing competing bills, creating an unusual standoff between the chambers. The version the Senate approved on Monday combines aspects of both chambers’ bills, and includes language banning investors from buying single family homes if they already own 350 or more properties, which Trump has sought to crack down on. …