The housing affordability bill was passed by the U.S. Senate with an 89-10 vote.
The bill, however, has an uphill climb in the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed its own bipartisan home affordability legislation in February. GOP leaders warned the measure faces a lengthy reconciliation as chamber differences threaten to stall progress.
U.S. Representative Hillary Scholten, a Grand Rapids Democrat, spoke about the bill during a recent online town hall.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of outside developers coming in, swooping up these housing units, and then reselling them, jacking up the rental prices and making it much more difficult for everyone else.”
The Senate bill places a ban on investors and companies from purchasing single-family homes if they already own 350 or more.
However, investors or companies constructing or renovating existing properties could own and rent them with the requirement they’d be sold after seven years.
“People are getting priced out of Grand Rapids and Muskegon and we have to make sure that we are keeping an affordable housing and rental stock here to keep our great talent here in West Michigan.”
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