Congress passed a sweeping housing bill this week with unusual bipartisan support — the House voted three hundred fifty-eight to thirty-two, and the Senate approved it eighty-five to five. The Road to Housing Act aims to ease the shortage of affordable homes by relaxing local building regulations and encouraging new construction. The bill combines nearly fifty different housing proposals from both parties and is expected to reach President Trump for his signature. One notable provision limits private equity firms from purchasing more than three hundred fifty single-family homes at once, though they can keep properties they already own. The bill also includes a crypto measure that bans the federal government from issuing a digital dollar. While both parties agree the housing crisis needs solving, the bill doesn't address the two biggest barriers to affordability: mortgage rates, which are controlled by the Federal Reserve, and the steep rise in home prices over the past five years. According to Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the bill's architects, this is just a start — Congress has acknowledged the problem and set limits on investor speculation, but the nation's housing shortage remains much larger than what this legislation alone can fix.

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