Trump cancels signing of bipartisan US housing bill

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday canceled a planned signing of bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the construction and availability of more affordable housing.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday in a 358-32 vote, after being passed by the Senate on Monday by a vote of 85-5. Passage of such major legislation in the deeply divided Congress has been rare.

The move comes as the high cost of living in the U.S., with the inflation rate rising significantly during Trump’s second term in office, is ranked as a top worry by voters in public opinion polls.

Among the main provisions of the bill are waiving or speeding up environmental reviews for home construction projects and placing a cap on the number of already constructed single-family homes that big Wall Street investors can own.

There is an estimated shortage of millions of affordable homes in the United States, according to housing industry groups.

The combination of high mortgage rates, rising home prices and supply chain problems over the past several years has contributed to consumers’ difficulties.

According to a survey released on Tuesday, a majority of American consumers have said, for the first time since 2023, that they would prefer to buy a home rather than rent or move in with family members.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Doina Chiacu)