This country has a massive housing crisis.
In November 2025, the median age of a first-time U.S. homebuyer hit 40, an all-time high, and first-time buyers’ share of the market had fallen to a record low (21%).1 Renters are squeezed too. Half of all U.S. renter households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and over a quarter pay more than 50%.2
In response, state and federal lawmakers have moved to eliminate barriers to creating new housing. In the last 12 months, we’ve seen a flurry of bills aimed at cutting through regulatory red tape that has prevented cities’ housing supplies from keeping up with their population growth.
California (AB 130 and SB 131)
California has been at the epicenter of the U.S. housing crisis, and one of its own laws had become a major reason why.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), signed in 1970, requires public agencies to study and disclose the environmental impact of any project they approve. Its goal was to protect the state from runaway development that ignored air quality, traffic, and habitat loss. For its first few decades, it largely did that.
The trouble came when CEQA’s broad standing rules met California’s housing shortage. The law lets almost anyone challenge an inadequate environmental review, and homeowner groups opposed to new construction learned to weaponize it. Infill apartments in already-developed neighborhoods became some of the most-litigated projects in the state, tied up for years over alleged environmental impacts. Past reform attempts stalled because CEQA’s environmental purpose remains real and worth preserving.
California finally pushed reform through anyway, an indication of how acute the housing crisis has become. On June 30, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 130 and SB 131, exempting most urban infill housing from CEQA review.3 The bills also add a “near miss” rule: if a project narrowly fails to qualify for an exemption, it only has to address the single disqualifying issue instead of redoing the full environmental review.4 Newsom’s office called it “the most consequential housing and infrastructure reform in recent state history.”5
Montana (SB 245, 323, 382, and 528)
Montana wasn’t supposed to have a housing crisis. Then the pandemic arrived, and demand for housing in Bozeman, Missoula, and Billings surged. Home prices in those towns rose sharply between 2020 and 2023, putting homeownership out of reach for a growing share of Montanans.
Governor Greg Gianforte’s response was to convene a Housing Task Force, drawing on developers, planners, and local officials. Less than a year later, he signed the bipartisan four-bill package the task force produced.6 The bills require larger cities to allow apartments in most commercial zones, duplexes on single-family lots, and at least one ADU on every single-family lot, all by-right. They also replace project-by-project public hearings with a single hearing held when the city adopts its overall zoning plan.
A homeowner group sued, but in March 2026, the Montana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the core of the package.
The federal ROAD Act
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is the broadest federal housing bill in years. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), chair of the Banking Committee, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), an unlikely bipartisan pairing, cosponsored the bill. On March 12, 2026, the Senate passed it 89 to 10.7
The bill streamlines environmental review for federally subsidized affordable housing projects, modernizes manufactured housing rules, raises the cap on federally backed loans for apartment construction, and restricts large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.8
Photo by Shivendu Shukla
And the rest
Other states have followed the same pattern in recent months. Colorado’s HOME Act unlocked nonprofit, school, and transit-agency land for by-right residential development. Washington’s SB 6026 opened most commercial zones to housing in larger cities. Florida’s Live Local 4.0 bill extended by-right multifamily eligibility to land owned by religious institutions, and gave developers the right to sue local governments that discriminate against affordable projects. Idaho, Indiana, and Virginia passed their own packages.9
Beyond the bills
Getting a project approved still takes months, even with the new laws on the books. Miami’s mayor recently said affordable housing permits in her city can take up to 18 months.10
Some jurisdictions have adopted a shot-clock approach that gives city reviewers a limited time window to approve plans. But a shot clock without better tools just forces a choice between missing the deadline or rubber-stamping the project. Plan checking exists for good reason. It catches real safety issues before construction starts, and the public is genuinely served by a thorough review.
For the first time in a generation, the laws are on the side of more housing. The hard part now is getting the homes those laws allow through the door.
And that’s where our work begins.
Footnotes
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National Association of REALTORS, “First-Time Home Buyer Share Falls to Historic Low of 21%, Median Age Rises to 40” (Nov. 4, 2025), reporting findings from the 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. ↩
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Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2025”, reporting 2023 American Community Survey data. ↩
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California AB 130 and SB 131, signed June 30, 2025. Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, signing announcement. ↩
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Association of Bay Area Governments, summary of AB 130 and SB 131. ↩
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Montana SB 245, SB 323, SB 382, and SB 528, enacted 2023. Background on the Gianforte Housing Task Force is summarized in the Daily Montanan. ↩
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Office of Sen. Tim Scott, press release on Senate passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. ↩
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Colorado HB26-1001 (signed March 25, 2026): Office of Gov. Jared Polis. Washington SB 6026 (signed March 27, 2026): Seattle Times. Florida HB 1389: Florida Senate bill page. Idaho SB 1352 and SB 1354 (signed March 31, 2026): SB 1352, SB 1354. Indiana HEA 1001: Indiana Capital Chronicle. Virginia HB 594: Virginia LIS. ↩
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Miami Today, “Miami permitting changes sought to break through the gridlock” (April 15, 2026), quoting Mayor Eileen Higgins. ↩
