A landmark housing affordability bill is headed to President Trump’s desk after winning overwhelming support in Congress. The bill aims to tackle America’s housing affordability crisis primarily through encouraging more supply, including of manufactured homes, and through encouraging local governments to reform zoning and permitting restrictions.

Housing Affordability Crisis

The high cost of living is squeezing Americans and putting homeownership, long a cornerstone of the American dream, increasingly out of reach. The bill includes a first-of-its-kind limit on private equity by prohibiting large investors from buying single-family homes.

The bill represents a major victory for manufactured homes, which are built in factories and are typically faster and cheaper to produce than traditional houses built on-site. The new housing law would eliminate the chassis requirement, which could reduce the cost of each manufactured home by $5,000 to $10,000.

Local Impact

The bill includes provisions to encourage states and local governments to adopt land use and zoning policies that are more supportive of housing development. If land-use regulations were relaxed, an extra 2.5 million housing units could be added to the United States in the next decade.

The bill also offers money to local governments to develop pre-approved housing designs, or pattern books, which would help speed up local construction approvals. Over time, Americans should notice there’s more housing available, and that’s true for urban areas and rural areas, true for renters and for buyers.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.