Western governors: Bipartisan fixes exist for affordable housing crisis

At midnight on July 10, the most significant federal housing policy in more than three decades became law with overwhelming support from both parties—and not a moment too soon for millions of Americans exhausted by the hunt for an affordable home. 

Consider this: When Bill Clinton began his second term in 1997, the median sales price for a home in the United States was $82,800. Last month, that price soared to an eye-watering, record high of $446,400. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act approved by Congress won’t magically make homes more affordable, but it moves our country firmly in the right direction. And much of the bill’s blueprint was drawn under the leadership of western governors on the front lines of the housing crisis.

This new law attacks the housing shortage from multiple angles. It makes homes easier to build by streamlining reviews and rewarding communities that adopt pre-approved home designs so builders aren’t reinventing the wheel—and repermitting it—on every lot. It makes permanent the federal government’s largest affordable-housing block grant, which has helped finance more than a million homes over three decades. And it helps families directly, expanding access to small mortgages under $100,000. These are the loans that make homeownership possible in rural towns where houses exist, but financing doesn’t.

Several of the law’s most consequential reforms weren’t hatched by lobbyists or in congressional committees; they started in the West. In July 2024, as chair of the Western Governors’ Association, Governor Lujan Grisham launched an initiative called Building Resilient and Affordable New Developments in the West, or “BRAND West” that convened workshops and housing tours, took feedback from the public, and spurred months of work with builders, lenders, tribal leaders, and local officials. The result was a set of specific recommendations WGA sent to Congress. Last week, several of them became federal law as part of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

Twenty-two western governors from across the political spectrum came together and asked Congress to scrap an outdated federal rule requiring every manufactured home to sit on a permanent steel chassis—a relic that added thousands of dollars to homes that never move again. This will cut the price of a manufactured home by $5,000 to $10,000. In rural New Mexico and Utah, that’s often the difference between owning and renting. That’s in the bill. 

We also asked Congress to make sure rural families don’t lose their rental assistance simply because the federal loan on their building gets paid off—a paperwork quirk that threatened hundreds of thousands of affordable rural homes. Now, that outdated hurdle to homeownership is gone. We also proposed a streamlined environmental review for housing built on vacant lots in already-developed neighborhoods. That’s in the new bill, too. 

We’re acting in our own states, as well. Utah created a first-of-its-kind loan program helping builders put up attainable starter homes for teachers, first responders, and veterans. Over the past two years, New Mexico invested more than $400 million in housing and stood up a statewide Office of Housing to attack a shortage of more than 40,000 homes. We hail from different states and different political parties, but we share the same conviction that housing is the foundation that everything else in a healthy society and economy is built on.

There is plenty left to do beyond the Housing Act. Congress should help fund the unglamorous predevelopment work—surveys, permits, feasibility studies—that moves a project from a concept to shovel-ready plan, reducing the heavy upfront costs that kill more small-town projects than market forces. Congress should also close the housing gap in tribal communities, where federal funding currently builds roughly 1,000 homes a year when the federal government estimates the need at 68,000. And Congress should also increase investment in the workers who build these homes. An acute shortage of workers in the skilled trades costs the housing sector nearly $11 billion a year by industry estimates, including roughly 19,000 homes that simply never get built. You can’t build houses without people who build houses.

Someone asked a question at a housing workshop in Salt Lake City two years ago: Are we going to be the first generation of Americans to leave our kids and grandkids worse off? For a long time, the answer was trending toward yes. But the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act championed by the western states, passed by both parties and enacted as Congress argued about everything else—shows we can still make sure the answer is, “no.”

Congress has proven that bipartisan housing policy is possible. Now, state and local governments must meet the moment and, in partnership with Congress, provide communities with even more of the tools, flexibility, and workforce training they need to turn this landmark legislation into more homes for Americans.

Michelle Lujan Grisham is the governor of New Mexico and served as 2024–25 chair of the Western Governors’ Association. Spencer Cox is the governor of Utah and served as 2025-26 chair.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.