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Major housing bill becomes law after Trump declines to sign it

A sweeping federal housing package became law automatically after President Trump refused to sign it but did not veto it. The bipartisan measure seeks to spur construction, limit some investor purchases and streamline housing rules, though local zoning and mortgage costs remain major constraints.

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Major housing bill becomes law after Trump declines to sign it
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A rare housing deal survives a White House standoff

A broad federal housing package took effect after President Donald Trump declined to sign it or veto it before a Friday night deadline, letting the measure become law automatically under the Constitution’s 10-day rule.aljazeera +1 The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act had cleared Congress with unusually large bipartisan margins: 85-5 in the Senate and 358-32 in the House, according to ABC News and PBS.nbcnews +1 Trump said he would withhold his signature in protest because the Senate had not passed the SAVE America Act, his preferred voting bill requiring proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote.aljazeera +1

The result is a political split screen. Republicans and Democrats spent weeks describing the housing bill as a serious response to affordability, while Trump called it a “big yawn” and “of minor importance” compared with his election legislation.aljazeera +1

Supply incentives, faster reviews and investor limits

The new law aims to push more housing construction by revising federal programs, expanding some affordable-housing financing tools and creating grants for planning and community development work.congress It also exempts some residential construction, improvement and rehabilitation projects from environmental review requirements, removes the permanent-chassis mandate for manufactured homes and excludes veterans’ disability benefits from income calculations for the VASH housing program.congress

One politically salient provision restricts large corporate landlords that already control at least 350 single-family homes from buying more, a bid to reduce competition against individual buyers.aljazeera +1 Al Jazeera reported that the bill also encourages modular homes, creates incentives for communities to build more housing and makes it easier to convert underused land into residential use.calmatters

The law’s reach will be tested locally

Housing advocates caution that the package does not solve the market by itself. NPR reported that it does not add new federal housing funding and does not directly rewrite local zoning rules, while mortgage rates remain around 6.5% and the median existing home price reached $440,600 in June.aljazeera PBS, citing the National Association of Realtors, also put June’s median sales price at a record $440,600, up 1.8% from a year earlier.facebook

The California implications show how incremental the law may be. CalMatters reported that one provision could cut Community Development Block Grant funds by 10% for expensive cities with weak building records and shift the savings toward faster-building communities.youtube The same report said California experts expect the investor-purchase limits to have a muted local effect because corporate buyers are not a dominant force in the state’s housing market.youtube