WASHINGTON – Today, Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced the bipartisan Housing Affordability Act to increase the supply of affordable housing by increasing the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) outdated multifamily loan limits.
“To tackle the affordable housing crisis, we need to make building homes easier and cheaper. But outdated regulations are holding us back,” said Senator Gallego. “By updating a nearly two-decade old loan limit, the Housing Affordability Act will expand access to affordable loans for building multifamily housing and ultimately bring down housing costs.”
“One of the biggest obstacles to widespread affordable housing in Pennsylvania and across the country is a lack of supply,” said Senator McCormick. “By making a long overdue increase to the FHA’s multifamily loan limits, we can incentivize the construction of more apartment buildings and, ultimately, increase access to housing for American families.”
The FHA’s multifamily loan limits have not been updated since 2003. As a result, over the last 5 years, the dollar volume of HUD-issued multifamily Firm Commitments has plummeted. Almost all communities are now treated as “high-cost areas” under the current limits. Rather than operating as intended to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from providing coverage of high-end luxury housing, the statutory limits and inaccurate index combine to strangle urgently needed multifamily housing projects across the country.
To address this, the Housing Affordability Act would amend the National Housing Act to raise statutory loan limits and update the inflationary adjustment index from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the Price Deflator Index of Multifamily Residential Units Under Construction (published by the Census Bureau), a more accurate index to capture the true cost of multifamily housing construction.
Full text of the legislation can be viewed HERE.
READ MORE: Bipartisan bill introduced to raise FHA loan limits
“The Housing Affordability Act would make a long overdue update to FHA’s multifamily insurance programs to capture the true cost of apartment construction and immediately leverage private capital for new affordable homes,” said Bill Killmer, Senior Vice President of Legislative and Political Affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). “MBA appreciates Senators Gallego and McCormick’s commitment to remove unintentional and outdated regulatory barriers that constrain and delay workforce housing development across the country.”
“Housing availability and affordability problems are directly tied to the significant shortage of housing units nationwide,” said Jeffrey D. DeBoer, President and CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable. “By increasing the Federal Housing Administration’s multifamily loan limits to more accurately reflect individual market costs, the bill introduced today by Senators Gallego and McCormick would increase apartment construction, add supply, and help bring down housing costs. In short, enactment of this bill would make housing more available and affordable for millions of American families.”
The Housing Affordability Act is also endorsed by: National Association of Home Builders; National Association of REALTORS®; National Multifamily Housing Council; National Housing Conference; National Apartment Association; Institute of Real Estate Management; National Affordable Housing Management Association; National Leased Housing Association Council for Affordable and Rural Housing; National Association of Housing Cooperatives; and Arizona Multihousing Association.
4/30/25