Baldwin-Backed Housing Bill Becomes Law at Midnight, Despite President Trump Refusing to Sign Bipartisan Legislation

Bill will help lower housing costs, build more affordable housing, and stop wealthy out-of-state investors from buying Wisconsin homes

Baldwin has led the fight to stop Wall Street from gobbling up Wisconsin houses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At midnight tonight, the U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)-backed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will become law, despite the over two-week delay from President Donald Trump and his refusal to sign the bill. The legislation, which is set to become law at midnight unless the President vetoes it, is the most significant legislation in 30 years to lower housing costs for families, invest in supply, and crack down on out-of-state investors gobbling up housing stock in our communities. For years, Senator Baldwin has fought to ban large private equity and large institutional investors from buying single-family homes in Wisconsin, often raising rent and putting home ownership further out of reach.

“I’ve travelled across Wisconsin talking to families who are begging for relief from high housing costs – renters’ budgets are stretched thin and homeownership is simply out of reach for so many. Republicans and Democrats came together to craft legislation that will build more housing in our state, lower costs, and take on Wall Street investors that are buying up homes in our neighborhoods,” said Senator Baldwin. “This bill should have been law weeks ago, but President Trump chose to play politics instead of listening to families struggling with the high cost of just about everything. I’m proud to have helped craft this bill and voted for it, and I will continue working with anyone to ensure Wisconsinites can make ends meet, achieve homeownership, and invest and live in the communities they love.”

Senator Baldwin traveled across the state, meeting with local families and housing stakeholders to advocate for the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Senator Baldwin held events in Sun Prairie, Wausau, Hayward, Watertown, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, and Eau Claire. In Wisconsin, the median home price climbed from $155,000 in 2015 to $325,000 in 2025, more than doubling over the decade. Wisconsin homebuyers are now spending four times more than their household income, according to an analysis of Census Bureau and Zillow data.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act includes key bipartisan priorities, including a provision banning large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Senator Baldwin has long championed legislation to crack down on corporate investors who buy up homes and lock Wisconsinites out of homeownership. Senator Baldwin co-leads the Affordable Housing and Homeownership Protection Act, legislation to help build and preserve approximately three million affordable housing units nationwide, fully paid for by taxing investors who purchase and hold more than 15 single-family homes. Baldwin also joined her colleagues in introducing the Stop Predatory Investing Act, to prohibit investors who acquire 50 or more single-family rental homes from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties. Baldwin and her colleagues called on President Trump to support their bill and to take on large institutional investors who are gobbling up homes. At the local level, Senator Baldwin called on the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of Chicago to work with her office and Milwaukee affordable housing nonprofits to expand opportunities for Milwaukee residents to compete with out-of-state investors.

Key provisions of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act include:

• Bans corporate landlords from buying up single-family homes: This housing package includes legislation that would rein in large institutional investor purchases of single-family homes. The legislation will halt large institutional investor purchases of single-family homes, making it easier for families to buy homes and harder for powerful corporate landlords to drive up the cost of rent. Penalties imposed for violations will be used to support housing construction and assistance for first-time homebuyers.
• Boosts housing supply to bring down costs: The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act will boost housing supply to bring down costs, including through the first-ever federal incentives for municipalities that successfully build more housing. The package will make it easier and cheaper to build new housing by removing the chassis requirement for manufactured housing; easing financing for modular housing, manufactured housing, and affordable dwelling units; and streamlining construction approval processes and environmental reviews for affordable housing development. It will also help preserve existing supply and convert blighted and underutilized buildings into new housing.
• Makes key reforms to increase housing fairness, access, and affordability: The legislation addresses appraisal bias, preserves manufactured housing communities, improves Section 8 inspection policies to get families housed faster, supports homeownership, addresses housing needs of veterans, and improves federal programs to help reduce homelessness.
• Includes significant, longstanding policy priorities to build more housing and make it more affordable: These provisions include reforming and reauthorizing the HOME Investment Partnerships program, authorizing the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program, making long-overdue reforms to the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service to prevent the loss of up to 400,000 affordable homes in rural communities, and creating new funding streams for HUD-certified housing counseling.

To read the bill text, click here.

To read the section-by-section, click here.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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