WASHINGTON — With Congress deadlocked over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, some priorities are out of the way. But with the midterm elections looming, lawmakers are still looking for solutions to an issue that matters to many Americans: buying a home.
Sens. Peter Welch D-Vt., and Jim Justice, RW.Va., are proposing to directly address rural affordability concerns by introducing a two-page bill that would help more Americans qualify for housing assistance. The move comes after a bipartisan package passed by the Senate earlier this month stalled in the House.
The new law, first obtained by NBC News, would modernize eligibility requirements for housing assistance that could help nearly 30 million rural homebuyers get a loan. The last time Congress addressed those requirements was almost sixty years ago. Under current law, homebuyers living in areas with more than 2,500 people are not eligible for a loan.
“Making mortgages more accessible is critical to solving this problem and will help millions of rural families experience the joy of home ownership for the first time,” Welch said in a statement.
Farm loan lenders and banks provide assistance to rural Americans, including farmers and ranchers, to build or buy a home. The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., would change the eligibility limit to communities with fewer than 10,000 people, potentially opening the door to about 40% of the US population.
The average age of first-time home buyers in the US hit a record high of 40 years last year, and first-time buyers make up 21% of all purchases. Home prices have grown at five to seven times the pace of household income.
“All over rural America, people just want to own a home, raise their family, and build something that lasts,” Justice said in a statement. “This bill helps increase credit competition and opens up more than 230,000 West Virginians to do just that.”
In his State of the Union address last month, President Donald Trump pushed for a 50-year mortgage and urged Congress to bar institutional investors from buying single-family homes to help homebuyers get into the market. He also signed two executive orders aimed at reducing regulatory barriers to housing and mortgage lending.
A few weeks ago, the GOP-led Senate majority voted in favor of a 303-page bill that would increase housing supply by strengthening corporate investors and establishing permits, zoning and environmental reforms.
But while House Republicans blocked the effort, Trump suggested they focus on strengthening voter ID requirements and limiting vote-by-mail, though a senior administration official told NBC News the president supports the Senate bill and will sign it into law.
Political storms are intensifying amid the ongoing administration war between the US-Israel and Iran, which is fueling the cost of gas and oil, and causing loan rates to rise again.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told his members a few weeks ago in Florida that Trump told him “nobody gives a (bleep) about housing,” according to a lawmaker who was there. White House spokesman Davis Ingle disputed the account, saying “President Trump has been focused on making housing more affordable.”
