Federal and State Housing Legislation Update: 7-25-26 Show

Real Estate Matters has been the voice of real estate in Palm Coast and Flagler County, Florida, for more than 12 years.

The most significant federal housing package passed in decades—the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—officially became law. Passed with strong bipartisan support, the law aims to lower housing costs, boost the nationwide supply of homes, and level the playing field for individual home buyers.

Here is a clear breakdown of what the legislation does, written without the usual government alphabet soup.

Watch the Podcast and read the Show Notes below for more details.

---

Be sure to check out the continually updated interactive Flagler County Map of Developments and Subdivisions.

Raw Show Notes

Our behind-the-scenes guide to the show’s flow, including topics we didn’t have time to get to on the show. This is raw and likely contains typos. Data reflects the date the show was recorded.

Show Notes for 7-25-2026

Recorded 7-24-2026

Welcome to the tranquil side of Florida. This is Real Estate Matters, the voice of real estate in Flagler County and Palm Coast for more than 12 years.

I’m Toby Tobin, publisher of real estate news website, GoToby.com, and a Florida-licensed Realtor with Grand Living Realty. I’m joined by Co-host Annamaria Long from the Flagler Homebuilders Association, one of our sponsors.

Thanks to Our Sponsors:

• Flagler County Home Builders Association
• Hammock Community Church – On A1A in The Hammock – Small enough to know you but large enough to serve you. North of the toll bridge with the message sign out front. It’s not just for Hammockians. Like me, many people cross the bridge.

Guest: None

July YTD results as of 7-24:

• Homes sold:164 with 71 DOM vs 230 with 60 DOM
• Median price: $370,000 vs $358,445
• Less than $250K: 9 sold, 5 for cash, 17 DOM
• $1M+: 7 sold, 5 for cash, 113 DOM
• Listings: 1,144 vs 1,438.
• Pending sales: 355 vs 294. Pending list price: $389,900
• GINNdex: 3.2 vs 4.89
• Price increases in the past 7 days: 9
• Price decreased in the past 7 days: 106
• New listings in the past 7 days: 74
• New sales in the past 7 days: 62
• New pending sales in the past 7 days: 68

Opinion:

It’s interesting to try to square the conflicting opinions that have become so prevalent on social media. Virtually every local politician and keyboard warrior has spoken out in favor of more job availability, higher paying jobs, and increasing commercial real estate tax revenue relative to residential property taxes.

Yet they fight the concept of data centers to the point of misframing a cable landing station as a data center. A simple query to AI responds with a litany of examples of the positive impact of cable landing stations on the surrounding economy. High tech brings high tech jobs and higher incomes.

One of the key needs of commercial or industrial expansion is an available labor force. Many have taken NIMBYism to a new level, rising to Not in My County. These workers, including hospitality workers, building trades, teachers, and first responders, are not welcome here. Not welcome in our neighborhoods. Not welcome in our county and do not belong in Western Expansion plans.

The lack of affordable housing is a national problem. Because local governments have long ignored the problem, the federal and state governments are stepping in.

New Federal Housing Law Summary

The most significant federal housing package passed in decades—the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—officially became law. Passed with strong bipartisan support, the law aims to lower housing costs, boost the nationwide supply of homes, and level the playing field for individual home buyers.

Here is a clear breakdown of what the legislation does, written without the usual government alphabet soup.

Key Highlights of the New Housing Law

1. Cutting Red Tape to Build Faster

• Streamlined Environmental Reviews: Reduces length and paperwork for housing projects that receive federal support, helping projects get approved and built faster.
• Local Zoning & Design Incentives: Creates a $200 million annual competitive grant program to reward local governments that update zoning laws, ease permitting rules, allow higher density, and adopt pre-approved housing blueprints (like duplexes and backyard cottages).

2. Curbing Wall Street Investor Purchases

• Protecting Starter Homes: Places restrictions on large institutional investors—defined as corporations controlling 350 or more single-family homes—from buying up existing single-family homes.
• Fairer Competition: Designed to keep individual buyers and families from being outbid by deep-pocketed corporate investment firms in local neighborhoods.

3. Boosting Financing & Local Lending

• Expanding Community Bank Loans: Gives local community banks greater leeway to lend money for residential construction and local mortgages.
• Small Mortgage Pilot: Establishes a targeted program to make smaller home loans (under $100,000) easier for lenders to issue, expanding options for lower-cost starter homes.

4. Supporting Manufactured & Modern Housing

• Updating Manufactured Home Rules: Eliminates outdated chassis requirements and modernizes federal energy efficiency standards to lower production costs for factory-built homes.
• Fixing & Preserving Communities: Reauthorizes grant programs to help repair, upgrade, and preserve existing manufactured home parks and affordable housing communities.

5. Home Repairs & Disaster Recovery

• Whole-Home Repair Grants: Provides federal support for local repair programs, giving forgivable loans and grants to low-income homeowners and landlords to make essential health and safety repairs.
• Permanent Disaster Aid Framework: Establishes a permanent three-year authorization for federal disaster recovery housing funds, ensuring relief money reaches impacted communities faster following major storms.

The Big Picture: Rather than focusing solely on direct spending, the law uses a mix of regulatory relief, local zoning incentives, and financing tweaks to encourage private developers and local governments to build millions of new housing units.

Difference between manufactured homes and modular homes:

Yes, federal law and building codes strictly distinguish between manufactured and modular homes. While both are factory-built off-site, they are governed by different legal standards, building codes, and financing rules.

The recent federal housing law—the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—maintains this distinction while making key updates to both categories.

The Core Legal Difference

Feature	Manufactured Homes	Modular Homes
Building Standard	Built to a single national federal standard established by the federal housing department.	Built to state and local building codes, the exact same rules that govern traditional on-site homes.
Inspection & Oversight	Inspected and certified by federal inspectors at the factory.	Inspected by state and local building officials during factory construction and final assembly.
Steel Frame (Chassis)	Historically required to be built on a permanent steel trailer frame.	Built in modules without a chassis, then set onto a permanent home foundation.
Zoning & Property Status	Often face local land-use restrictions or special zoning limits.	Treated legally identically to traditional homes in almost all local zoning districts.

How the New Housing Law Updates Each Type

The new legislation targets bottlenecks specific to each manufacturing model:

Updates for Manufactured Homes

• Optional Steel Frame: Eliminates the decades-old requirement that every manufactured home must include a permanent steel trailer frame. Removing the frame cuts manufacturing costs by several thousand dollars per unit and allows for multi-story or higher-density designs.
• Clear Consumer Disclosure: Directs regulators to create a simple label indicating whether a manufactured unit was built with or without a frame.
• Federal Preemption Protections: Confirms federal authority over national safety and energy standards so states cannot impose conflicting construction rules.

Updates for Modular Homes

• Financing Schedule Modernization: Directs mortgage regulators to update construction loan payout schedules for modular homes. Because modular homes are built quickly in a factory rather than over months on-site, traditional bank lending schedules often delayed payments to factory builders.

Key Takeaway: The legal division comes down to which building code applies—a national federal code for manufactured homes vs. local municipal codes for modular homes. The new law keeps that structural difference intact while updating regulations to make both types easier and cheaper to build and finance.

Live Local Update

Among several updates to Florida’s Live Local Act is the addition of public and religious land to the Act. Consider using the two 25-acre parcels that the Flagler school district owns on Seminole Woods Blvd. Affordable housing could be built here for school district employees.

Wrap-up:

Video podcasts of Real Estate Matters are available on GoToby.com. Click on Podcasts on the top navigation bar. Show notes are included so you can see what we didn’t get to on the show. Also, on GoToby.com, the Flagler County Interactive map of residential developments and subdivisions is updated regularly. Currently viewed over 11,000 times.

Let me be your consultant at no additional cost to you. 

Owners’ associations and Florida’s property tax system are often misunderstood by buyers and sellers, leading to undesired outcomes. I have served on homeowner and condo association boards and a CDD commission. I understand the world of deed-restricted communities. I also served for more than ten years on the Flagler County Value Adjustment Board.

If you are thinking about buying or selling property in Flagler County, call me first. I’ll introduce you to a highly qualified agent or builder and serve as your consultant throughout the transaction at no additional cost. Call me at 386-931-7124 or email me at Toby@GoToby.com.