NAR applauds Congress’ ‘bold action’ on housing 

The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced a bipartisan housing package in a move that was quickly applauded by housing advocates.

Elsewhere in Washington, D.C., the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has repealed a fair lending rule first implemented during the Biden administration, while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is set to release new jobs and inflation data this week — reports that could influence the Federal Reserve ahead of its next meeting.

Legislation aimed at addressing housing shortage clears first hurdle

The House advanced the Housing for the 21st Century Act in a 390-9 vote on Feb. 9. The housing package, which legislators introduced late last year, seeks to address the nation's housing shortage by cutting red tape and providing banks with more flexibility for local lending.

The legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate.

Shannon McGahn, the National Association of Realtors' EVP and chief advocacy officer, applauded the House vote. The legislation is "a meaningful and bipartisan step toward addressing America's housing affordability crisis," McGahn said, adding that "bold action to expand supply and remove barriers to homeownership has never been more urgent."

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) echoed McGahn's sentiment, with Chairman Buddy Hughes saying the legislation "will reduce impediments to increasing the housing supply" if it becomes law.

NFIP reauthorized through September

NAR also praised the Feb. 3 resolution of a partial government shutdown, which ended with Congress authorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through Sept. 30, 2026.

During the lengthy shutdown last fall, NFIP funding lapsed for several weeks, which posed a challenge for homeowners who needed to purchase or renew a flood insurance policy. The NFIP is the nation's largest flood insurance provider with an estimated 4.7 million policyholders.

New jobs, inflation data due out this week

The BLS is slated to release its January jobs and inflation reports on Feb. 11 and Feb. 13, respectively. Both were briefly delayed due to the partial government shutdown earlier this month.

The two reports could impact the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions at its March meeting. Though the central bank has indicated that it will hold off on adjusting short-term interest rates for now, signs that the labor market is weakening could make the case for cutting rates sooner. But if inflation were to spike, cuts will likely stay on pause.

The Fed is somewhat divided on rate cuts in 2026, with two of the Federal Open Market Committee's 12 voting members dissenting from a January decision to hold rates steady. One voting member — Fed Governor Michelle Bowman — recently said that while she backed last month's decision, she still predicts that three rate cuts will occur this year.

FHFA repeals fair lending rule

The FHFA has announced that its Fair Lending, Fair Housing, and Equitable Housing Finance Plans rule will be repealed on March 9.

The rule, which took effect in 2024, sought to improve the accountability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's Equitable Housing Finance Plans, and introduced new oversight for the FHFA's fair housing and fair lending programs, among other objectives.

The agency proposed the change last summer as part of an effort to comply with the Trump administration's directive for federal agencies to "alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens."

The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), which previously joined dozens of organizations in objecting to the FHFA's proposal, condemned the rule's repeal in a statement this week that called for its reinstatement.

The FHFA "has chosen to abandon a proven framework for accountability, innovation, and fair access to credit," the NFHA said, adding that the repeal "undermines significant efforts to increase homeownership access for low- and moderate-income households in rural, urban, and suburban communities during a worsening fair and affordable housing crisis."