On the Thursday, June 25, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: Americans are stretched thin and you probably know why: Housing. Will Trump end up signing the 21st Century Road to Housing Act now on his desk, and if he does, will it make housing any more affordable? Francis Torres, Director of Housing & Infrastructure for the Bipartisan Policy Center, joins The Excerpt to share his analysis of the crisis.
How Big Is the Housing Shortage?
Dana Taylor:
Americans are stretched thin and you probably know why. Housing. It’s become increasingly, persistently unaffordable, and for many, simply out of reach. Americans are moving less, forming fewer households, and are spending too much of their income on housing, according to an annual report just released by Harvard. Will the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, now on Trump’s desk, ever be signed into law? And if it does, will it make any dent in the issue? House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday assured reporters that the answer to both questions was yes.
Mike Johnson:
That’s not a Republican or a Democratic problem, it’s an American problem, so Americans are fixing it. And so we’re going to reduce regulation so builders can build, we’re going to limit institutional investing in the housing market. We’re going to bring the American dream back within the grasp of hardworking American families. Critical to do, great policy. The president, when we go through the details of the bill, he’s going to understand that it’s a good product, and certainly something that fulfills his promises to bring down the cost.
Dana Taylor:
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY’s The Excerpt. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, June 25th, 2026. For more on the state of America’s housing crisis, I’m now joined by Francis Torres, Director of Housing and Infrastructure for the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Francis Torres:
Likewise. Thank you for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Can you start us out by just giving us broad strokes of how big the housing shortage really is, who’s impacted, and how bad is it?
Francis Torres:
So we know that for decades, the United States has significantly under-built homes, especially in places with a lot of economic activity and vibrancy, with high opportunity. So over the years, this has really been a problem that has grown. We’ve seen places increasingly have low vacancy rates, we’ve seen households and families have a hard time finding homes to buy or rent, particularly near opportunities for their work or education, and ultimately, it’s range is in the millions in terms of how many homes need to be built to take us out of this hole. But really, all serious observers understand that we have this problem that’s built up over the years, and it won’t be solved unless we also address the supply constraint.
What’s in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act?
Dana Taylor:
The Housing Act just passed by Congress on Tuesday is a bipartisan piece of legislation, a year in the making. Although Trump hasn’t signed it yet, it seems to address the crisis on a number of fronts. Let’s take the big ones one by one, beginning with one of the most talked about provisions — the limit placed on large investors. Tell me about that.
Francis Torres:
This is a bill that tackles the housing affordability challenges that America faces in many different ways, but I do want to emphasize that is just one of a whole suite of provisions that would get at providing more housing supply to American families. That particular one has certainly been the subject of conversation here in Washington because of just disagreements between members of both parties — or even within parties — about the full extent of institutional investor involvement in the housing market. Well-intentioned people can disagree on how big of a problem it is nationally. It certainly has places across the country where it’s been more salient, but I would just say it’s only one of a huge swath of provisions that would, when implemented, help address these supply constraints we’re facing across the country.
Dana Taylor:
Many analysts have pointed to the sharp decline in new housing development following the 2008 recession as a major reason for the current housing shortage. Investors just weren’t willing to pour their money into a market where so many mortgages had just defaulted. How does the new legislation address this?
Francis Torres:
This legislation creates a lot of different incentives and also streamlines programs and regulations, focused all on addressing this constraint of supply and facilitating investment in homes and different kinds of housing. One really salient example is around what are called accessory dwelling units — often known as granny flats — which have become very common to build, but had limited financing options. This bill would provide greater options for households interested in doing so, and it’s just one of a suite of provisions that focus on the financing aspect of the housing crisis and incentivize both households and developers to spend more of their capital in housing.
I would also note that one of the main bottlenecks in housing development has been around zoning and land use — restrictions that exist at the local level for development of a diverse array of homes, multifamily housing and other types of homes. This bill provides guidance and best practices on what measures can help address this problem. It also creates further leverage for the federal government to use federal funding to incentivize cities, municipalities, and local governments to take up regulatory reforms that would facilitate development in their communities.
Manufactured Housing Gets a Boost
Dana Taylor:
Francis, there’s also a provision in the new law about manufactured housing. Can you tell me about that?
Francis Torres:
There’s a provision that would fix what’s called the chassis requirement, and essentially it would facilitate the development of manufactured housing, just broaden what can be done in that space. Manufactured housing is growing in America — there are perhaps outdated ideas of what it looks like, but it’s a very vibrant innovative sector within the housing development world that has been hamstrung to a great extent by some regulatory restrictions on the delivery of these factory-made homes. This bill would really just facilitate that delivery and make it a lot easier for households to invest in manufactured housing, and for developers to scale up their businesses to meet the country’s housing supply needs.
When Will Homeowners and Renters Actually Feel the Difference?
Dana Taylor:
The housing affordability crisis has been a hot issue in recent primaries. How big of an issue will this be for voters in the midterms?
Francis Torres:
I think a really significant issue, and this is not just me saying it. We’ve done some polling here at BPC, and in a survey of a nationally representative sample of voters, around 89% of voters, regardless of party ID, identify this as an issue they want to see Congress take action on. Housing costs are one of the main costs that households feel and that anchors their sense of how well they’re doing. In as much as this bill puts forth ideas for how to address housing costs and how to build more housing, it is tackling this issue that’s really top of mind for voters.
Dana Taylor:
The impacts of the Road to Housing Act could take a while to affect affordable housing. Walk me through that, please.
Francis Torres:
For a narrow set of stakeholders, some of these reforms will take immediate effect. For example, if you’re keen on financing an ADU purchase, then some of the changes this bill puts in place will help you. However, for the majority of American households, they’re not going to see a change in their housing costs a month from now. This bill is really a starting step — an initial step by federal government to dig us out of a decades-long bottleneck. The goal is to tackle some of the bottlenecks and some of the problems that have kept us from providing the level of housing supply that the country needs over time.
You would expect to see the impacts of this bill in housing affordability a little bit further down the line — and we might be talking years from now. It also depends very significantly on the implementation of the bill’s provisions by federal agencies, but also their take-up by state and local governments. A lot of what the bill lays out is creating a context for states, cities, and municipalities to act upon, so really federal government is a partner here to lawmakers at more local levels.
What the Law Can’t Fix: Interest Rates and Inflation
Dana Taylor:
In Harvard’s 2026 edition of their annual State of the Nation’s Housing Report, nearly one in four homeowners are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Interest rates are always a big part of the calculus for homeowners. Are any of the provisions in this new law expected to bring those costs down?
Francis Torres:
The Harvard Report really does emphasize the extent to which homeowners are burdened by high costs, and a key driver of these costs is interest rates. This bill doesn’t address interest rates — that’s a macroeconomic factor and ultimately up to the Federal Reserve. However, I do want to emphasize that the second-order consequence of this bill passing, if well implemented, will create a supply increase that should then reduce some of the cost burdens on American households, both renter and homeowner households, as we have a more abundant housing market.
Dana Taylor:
Stubbornly high inflation has had a huge impact on household budgets. There is a lot of uncertainty in the US economy right now with a weakening labor market, skyrocketing gas prices, and stubbornly high inflation. How are these factors impacting housing affordability?
Francis Torres:
They’re all huge factors impacting housing affordability, and I think you’re getting at why this problem is so complicated. It’s a problem that has many different roots. The macroeconomic environment, the interest rate environment has a lot to do with the costs that homeowners and prospective home buyers face. At the same time, there’s a broader supply constraint that over time has also made it harder to access homes and driven up costs. A lot of what this bill is trying to achieve is tackling those factors that are within the federal government’s domain, and helping state and local governments tackle the ones they can address directly through incentives and specific federal funding.
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