Congress agrees: It’s time to act on housing. Will it help Idaho catch up?

Congressional leaders sent a federal housing bill aimed at jolting America’s sluggish housing supply and curbing costs to President Donald Trump Monday after a rare flourish of bipartisan support that included Idaho’s full delegation.

Some 2,000 miles west, Boise-area housing advocates lauded the move, though questions linger over if — and when — action out of Washington, D.C., can ease costs in a state where home prices have doubled in less than a decade.

At nearly 400 pages long, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act wraps a slew of legislation into one package designed to spur the construction of new homes, help preserve the existing supply, and, ultimately, bring down the skyrocketing costs Americans pay for shelter. To do it, the bill slackens regulations around housing development, widens the scope of federal funding for homes, loosens lending restrictions on repairs and limits “corporate landlords” — large, institutional investors — from buying up single-family homes.

Together, the new rules “address overregulation contributing to excessive costs and construction and zoning delays,” according to a statement from U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. The need in Idaho is acute: The state is short some 35,000 affordable rental units, according to a 2026 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The American Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit think tank, found that Idaho is short about 44,500 homes; Ada County alone was about 13,000 behind, according to the study.

“Lack of affordable housing is one of the top concerns I hear from Idahoans during meetings throughout the state,” Crapo, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement after the U.S. Senate initially passed the bill in March. “Cutting unnecessary red tape will help address the housing supply shortage, making it easier to build and buy homes and bringing the dream of homeownership within reach for more Americans.”

All four members of Congress from Idaho supported the bill, which passed the House, 358-32, on June 23. It passed the Senate the day before by a vote of 85-5.

In a Truth Social Post last week, Trump said that he was canceling a scheduled signing ceremony for the housing bill until Congress passed the SAVE America Act, an election reform measure that would tighten restrictions on acceptable voter identification documents and eliminate elective mail-in voting. That bill has failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill.

Once transmitted to the White House, the federal housing affordability bill can still become law without the president’s signature after 10 working days, provided Congress remains in session.

On Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the bill set to arrive to his desk was a “yawn,” The Hill reported.

In a statement to the Idaho Statesman, Crapo remained optimistic that the housing bill would become law despite the president’s unanticipated delay.

“Passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marks an important step forward to restoring the American Dream of homeownership for families in Idaho and across the country,” Crapo said. “It takes meaningful action to address affordability challenges by reducing unnecessary federal red tape, expanding housing opportunities, modernizing outdated programs for the first time in over 30 years and encouraging the development of more affordable housing options — all without spending a single federal dollar."

Housing advocates laud flexibility, funding

The federal measures mirror reform efforts already underway at the state and local level in Idaho, according to Ali Rabe, executive director of the Gem State Housing Alliance, a housing advocacy nonprofit.

“It cuts red tape, modernizes rural housing services, streamlines permitting and ties federal funding to actual housing production,” said Rabe, also a Democratic state lawmaker. “That supply-side focus is exactly where the problem sits, and it’s what we’re pushing communities to address through zoning reform and code modernization.”

Rabe’s group was one of more than 120 pro-housing groups that backed the bill, she said. In particular, she called support from Crapo — a senior member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs — “crucial for Idaho.”

“The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is significant legislation, likely the most impactful federal housing bill in decades,” Rabe said.

Recently, Rabe’s group analyzed zoning codes in 28 Idaho communities. The report, published this year, “documents the same kinds of barriers the federal bill is designed to address: outdated zoning that restricts housing types, lengthy permitting processes and regulations that add cost without adding value,” she said. “The federal approach validates what we’re seeing on the ground in Idaho cities.”

At the state level, Sen. Ben Toews and Rep. Jordan Redman, both conservatives from Coeur d’Alene, spearheaded a suite of bills overriding local ordinances to drive housing supply by shrinking minimum lot sizes, allowing accessory dwelling units and lifting bans on duplexes and so-called “twin homes.” Those laws don’t kick in until July 1, but Rabe was happy to see Congress tack close to Idaho’s legislature.

“The federal approach validates what we’re seeing on the ground in Idaho cities,” Rabe said.

Kelley Packer, executive director of the Association of Idaho Cities, decried both Idaho’s new housing laws and the federal proposal. To her, the bill leapfrogs local jurisdictions just to nibble at the edges of what’s driving housing costs.

“While AIC and I are grateful that policymakers and national organizations are trying to find solutions for attainable housing, a critical need for so many throughout our state and nation, we think they are failing to approach it in the right way,” Packer told the Statesman in an email.

Packer emphasized other areas that have pushed prices higher, such as costs of land, labor, lumber and lending. Focusing on a fifth “L” — laws — fails to take in the whole picture, she said, “especially when you only focus on the smaller local portion of laws (zoning) and not on state and federal regulations that also bump up housing construction costs.”

“Policymakers at all levels, along with industry experts, should be working together to find the right solutions,” Packer said. “We all need to focus on partnerships, not preemption.”

While the bill binds local laws, it does give jurisdictions more control over how they can spend federal funds they do get. That’s exciting to Melinda McGoldrick, a senior manager Boise’s Housing and Community Development Division. McGoldrick has tracked the bill for several months, eyeing a provision that would allow the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grants to pay for the construction of new housing. These grants are the largest entitlements Boise gets from the federal government, McGoldrick said; recently they’ve amounted to $1.3 million to $1.4 million per year — and couldn’t be spent on new buildings.

“This change in the regulations means that we will have more resources available to support creating the new affordable housing units we know our community needs,” McGoldrick told the Statesman.

“Our housing team is generally supportive of the additional reforms to ease administration of these programs, and we look forward to reviewing some of the other innovative funding opportunities for preservation and additional development that the act will create,” she added.

Idaho housing prices stay high despite construction

Boise land-use attorney Geoff Wardle said he thinks the bill will make HUD financing faster and easier for his private clients, too. A partner at Clarke Wardle, he’s a recurring figure at city hall, where he typically defends housing projects through public hearings, often with rare zeal. Despite that, he’s concerned over the supply-side approach. While he finds “good, small, incremental things” that will make permitting houses easier for his clients, he doesn’t see a silver bullet for homebuyers.

“I don’t think this is going to move the needle — certainly not in the short term, and not even in the medium or long term,” he said. His concern: The costs are just too high at every stage. Getting people in homes, he said, “it’s going to require some degree of subsidization” to renters or buyers — something the new bill doesn’t directly address.

In that, Idaho is an interesting case study. Compared to peer states, it has built a lot of housing. Idaho’s housing growth rate — the percentage of new houses added — topped the nation in both 2024 and 2025, the Idaho Department of Labor reported in May. Since 2020, the state’s housing stock has grown by 12.3%, the second fastest in the nation, according to the Governor’s Office.

“Idaho’s nation-leading housing unit growth is no accident,” Gov. Brad Little said, pointing to permitting reform, deregulation and investment in education and career training. “None of this progress would be possible without the hardworking men and women in Idaho’s construction and trade industries who are helping build stronger communities across our state.

“While this report shows Idaho is moving in the right direction, we recognize housing affordability and accessibility remain top concerns for Idaho families, and we have more work to do to ensure the American dream remains within reach for the next generation.”

The housing stock is actually growing faster than Idaho’s population, which grew just under 10% in the same window, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. But in raw numbers it can’t seem to keep up — or bring prices down.

From the start of 2020 through May 2026, though, the median listing price for a house in Idaho grew some 64%, to just below $600,000 last month, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Median household incomes, meanwhile, grew 22%.

That’s great for people who already own homes and need their largest asset to appreciate, Wardle said. And, he says, the growing value of homes dulls enthusiasm for large-scale reform among homeowners, who benefit from the seller’s market.

“I think most Idahoans, they don’t actually want affordable housing,” he said. “They just want their housing to be cheaper.”

Reporter Kevin Fixler contributed.