Senate Passes 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Limiting Investor Purchases

The Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Monday, sending the bipartisan measure to the House for a final vote. The legislation caps the number of single-family homes institutional investors can purchase nationwide at 350 properties and removes several regulatory barriers to new construction.

The bill establishes pre-approved home designs, streamlines environmental reviews, and encourages zoning reforms to speed homebuilding.

It creates the Innovation Fund, which awards $200 million annually for five years to localities that have increased housing supply, and launches a pilot program to convert vacant commercial buildings into affordable housing. Additional provisions unlock federal funding for factory-built homes and eliminate the requirement that homes be built on a chassis.

" He had also pushed for a ban on institutional investors buying single-family homes during his January State of the Union address.

The president is expected to sign the bill if the House approves it. Investor ownership rules apply only to existing single-family homes, not new construction. As of 2025, larger institutional investors owning more than 1,000 homes held a combined 500,000 properties, or 0.34 percent of U.S.

Housing stock, according to BofA Global Research. In Jacksonville, Florida, investors own more than 20 percent of single-family rental homes, per a 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office analysis.

Between 2018 and 2024, Dallas added at least 16,000 investor-owned homes, a 177 percent increase, while Phoenix added at least 16,000, up 114 percent. The median U.S. home price now stands at roughly $403,000, up 77 percent from about $227,000 in 2011, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St.