Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts speaks to members of the media in the Senate Subway at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC, USA.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan affordable housing bill by a vote of 85-5 that would limit the number of single-family homes that major investors can buy, after months of debate across both chambers.
The vote came after lawmakers reached agreement last week on a bill aimed at increasing the supply of housing while limiting private equity’s influence on the housing market. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill later this week.
Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.), who helped pass the bill, characterized the U.S. housing situation as a crisis, with young people increasingly delaying buying their first home.
“Housing prices are too high, housing supply is too low, rents are too high, starter homes are too hard to find, and the American dream is getting further and further away for too many people,” Scott said on the Senate floor before the vote.
The bill aims to increase housing affordability as both parties tout efforts to reduce the cost of living ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans hope to preserve their slim majorities in both chambers. President Donald Trump has expressed support for the bill.
But the bill barely got off the ground as Republicans fought over provisions restricting institutional investors and the House and Senate negotiated different versions of the proposal. Lawmakers last week struck a middle ground between the House version, which is said to be more Wall Street-friendly, and the Senate version, which includes tighter regulation of institutional investors.
One problem with previous iterations was requiring investors with more than 350 units to sell any new units built above that cap within seven years. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle worried that such restrictions would curb new housing construction.
The final version of the bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on Monday afternoon, will keep the 350-unit sales cap in place but remove the seven-year sell-off clause.
“The United States faces a housing deficit of more than 4.7 million units, and expanding supply remains the most effective and sustainable way to improve affordability, support workforce mobility, and strengthen local economies,” Neil Bradley, executive vice president, chief policy officer and strategic advocacy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement last week.
“This supply-focused package will encourage housing development by modernizing federal housing programs, reducing regulatory barriers, preserving residential and multifamily rental housing options, increasing paths to homeownership, and spurring much-needed investment and new construction,” Bradley said.
The policy was led by Scott, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. French Hill (R-Arkansas) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the top Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee.
It would also ease some regulations to allow new housing construction, tie Community Development Block Grant funds to increasing the supply of housing in communities, and create a pilot program to award grants to redevelop vacant properties into housing.
“We are closer than ever to passing the biggest housing bill since 1990, when the average price of a home in America was $150,000,” Warren said on the Senate floor before the vote. “Thirty-six years later, the average home sells for more than $500,000, and the American dream of homeownership is now out of reach for millions of families.”
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins contributed to this article.
