Two Proposed Bills Could Profoundly Impact U.S. Housing Markets – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Policy Watch

A Senate-approved bipartisan housing bill and a proposal to make home-building materials tariff-exempt are making the rounds.

The question of how to solve America’s housing crisis has long befuddled market experts and armchair economists alike, including yours truly. (I’m in the latter category.) Housing deficits vary from state to state, but the most acute crises are in places that meet at least two of the following criteria: rapid population growth, restrictive zoning or other regulatory hurdles, high labor costs, labor shortages, and good old-fashioned NIMBYism. The most recent data from the AEI Housing Center indicates the worst deficits are in Hawaii, California, New York, the District of Columbia, and Washington. When you factor in populations, the numerical shortages are startling, with almost 2.2 million housing units needed in California, over 950,000 in New York, and over 490,000 in Florida.

For GBA’s American readership, ours is a nation that cannot adequately house its own people. Whether you attribute this to the social safety net or lack thereof, burdensome permitting processes to approve housing starts, or something else, however we disagree on the cause shouldn’t distract us from treating the sickness. As of this writing, Congress is debating two separate but interrelated bills that, if signed into law, have the potential to drastically increase affordable housing stock and relieve the affordability gap for millions who presently fall into the cost-burdened (30% of income is spent on housing) or severely cost-burdened (50%) categories.

A new housing bill that cuts red tape

The first of these proposed laws is a bipartisan housing bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), that was recently approved by the Senate on a vote of 89 to 10. The 303-page bill, dubbed the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” covers a lot of ground, detailing goals to rapidly grow affordable housing stock, expand access to housing through rental assistance and other measures,…