McCormick, Fetterman: Here’s why we’re behind a bipartisan plan to help first-time home buyers
We support the ROAD to Housing Act because it keeps the dream of homeownership within reach for young people.
When we were teenagers growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Americans typically bought their first home at the age of 29. Now, first-time home buyers tend to be in their 40s.
As U.S. senators from different parties, we don’t agree on everything. But as friends, parents of nine children between us, and representatives of working families across Pennsylvania, we cannot accept this terrible trend.
The American dream — the promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can build a good life and financial security in a home that you own — must not fall out of reach of young Pennsylvanians.
That’s why we support the ROAD to Housing Act. This bipartisan bill, which the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on this week, will help address Pennsylvania’s housing crisis by making it easier to build more homes, more affordably, while also preserving and repairing the housing stock we already have.
The commonwealth has 100,000 fewer homes than it needs today and is on track to be short 185,000 by 2035.
As a result of this shortage, home prices have increased 75% in the last five years. More than one million Pennsylvania households spend over 30% of their income on housing, and more than half of our housing stock is over 50 years old, driving up repair costs and straining family budgets.
That combination — too few and too many aging homes — creates a squeeze felt from Erie to Philly: young families delaying having kids, seniors stuck in homes they can’t afford to fix, workers turning down jobs because they can’t find a place to live nearby.
The shortage will get even more acute as new investments in Pennsylvania’s energy and artificial intelligence, defense, and life-science industries generate great new jobs across the commonwealth.
We have celebrated these transformative investments, from U.S. Steel to the Philly Shipyard, but more jobs mean more workers, and workers need homes.
The ROAD Act delivers by taking three commonsense approaches. First, it tackles affordability at the source — supply — by reducing delays and lowering construction costs.
Second, it strengthens accountability and modernizes federal programs to ensure they work for the people they’re meant to serve.
Third, it empowers Pennsylvanians to build what fits local needs.
We’re proud that the bill includes provisions to protect Pennsylvania workers, veterans, and homeowners, which we championed together. Our Whole-Home Repairs legislation, for example, supports homeowners, especially in markets like ours with many historic residences, by offering grants and forgivable loans for repairs and upgrades of aging homes, keeping families in their homes and stabilizing neighborhoods.
This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It’s an American one, and it demands bipartisan action.
For these reasons, we stand united, as we have on many other issues, in voting yes for the ROAD to Housing Act.
Dave McCormick and John Fetterman represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate.