Housing for the 21st Century Act: A Simple Look at What It Could Mean for You

If you’ve felt like there just aren’t enough homes to choose from, you’re not imagining it. A lot of what’s driving affordability and competition comes back to one thing: housing supply. Simply put, when there aren’t enough homes available, prices and bidding pressure tend to rise.

On February 9, 2026, the U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill called the Housing for the 21st Century Act by a vote of 390–9. The big-picture goal is to make it easier to build more housing by reducing delays, improving coordination across agencies, and updating a few programs tied to financing and construction. It still has to go through the Senate process before anything becomes law, so consider this a “direction of travel,” not an immediate change.

What the bill is trying to accomplish
From a practical standpoint, this bill is aimed at three common bottlenecks that slow down new housing:

• Time: speed up certain review and approval steps so projects don’t sit for years

• Cost: make some housing types and building approaches less expensive to produce

• Local barriers: encourage better zoning and land-use practices so more homes can be built where people want to live

You’ll hear it described as “cutting red tape,” but the core idea is: build more homes with fewer unnecessary delays.

What This Means for Buyers

• More homes over time can reduce pressure. This isn’t an overnight fix. But if more housing gets built, buyers usually get more choices and a less frantic market.

• More attention on first-time and middle-income buyers. Parts of the package focus on studying and reducing barriers for households who don’t qualify for a lot of assistance, but still struggle with today’s prices.

• Potential growth in lower-cost housing options. The bill includes provisions that could make it easier to expand manufactured housing and other cost-saving approaches. Whether that helps you depends on your area and what’s available locally.

Local note: national bills set the tone, but results show up differently city to city. If you want to know what supply looks like in your price range in DFW right now, I’m happy to pull the local numbers.

What This Means for Sellers

• If more homes get built, competition can change. In markets where new supply ramps up, buyers often become more selective. That usually puts more emphasis on smart pricing and strong presentation.

• This is why pricing strategy matters. Even in a strong market, homes don’t sell just because they’re listed. If your home is competing with new construction or a growing number of listings, the plan has to be tight from day one.

• For expired listings, this is a useful reminder: if a home didn’t sell before, the solution usually isn’t “wait longer.” It’s adjusting the strategy, photos, condition, and price so the listing matches what buyers are actually doing right now.

The bottom line
The Housing for the 21st Century Act is designed to help the market long-term by encouraging more housing to get built and removing some common barriers that slow projects down. If more supply comes online, it can help ease affordability pressure, but the timeline and impact will vary locally.

Want local numbers for your neighborhood? I’ll pull them for you, email them over, and follow up to see what questions you have. You can schedule at rob-hurt.com.