WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) voted to pass the updated 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan bill to build more affordable housing, bring down housing costs, and stop Wall Street from buying up local homes. The Senate passed the bipartisan bill 85-5, and it now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives. 

“No matter where I travel in Wisconsin, whether it’s big cities like Milwaukee and Madison or small villages like Brandon and Biron, everyone is struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living – and housing is at the top of that list of monthly expenses,” said Senator Baldwin. “Homeownership feels increasingly out of reach for too many families, and our bipartisan bill would be a step in the right direction so families can put down roots and live in the communities they love. Our bill will cut red tape and make it easier to get shovels in the ground and build more affordable housing. After years of working on it, I’m glad that we are finally cracking down on Wall Street investors that come into our communities, buy up single-family homes, and jack up prices for families or cut them out entirely.”

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 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.
  • Makes Additional Investments in Housing Supply:
    • Allowing CDBG funds to be used to build new affordable housing, a longstanding priority for local governments and community development organizations.
    • Authorizing new grants to states and localities to assist with regional planning and implementation efforts associated with affordable housing.
    • Reauthorizing and updating the HOME program, the largest federal housing block grant program that helps states and communities build new housing, rehabilitate residential property, assist homebuyers, and support renters. Added reforms will help expand access to affordable housing for more families, account for rising housing costs, and allow HOME funds to be used for necessary infrastructure improvements connected to housing developments in small and rural communities.
    • Requiring annual congressional testimony from the HUD Secretary regarding agency operations, oversight activities, and program performance.
    • Requiring a GAO study on middle-income housing.
    • Requiring GAO studies on heirs property, housing for seniors and people with disabilities, and housing near superfund sites.

To read the bill text, click here.

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

An online version of this release is available here.