Congress targets housing price gouging—but enforcement hinges on vague standards.
H.R. 3214 — HOME Act of 2025 · Filed by Steven Horsford (D-NV) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced May 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a federal price-gouging prohibition on residential rentals and single-family home sales during declared 'affordable housing crises,' enforced by HUD with civil penalties flowing to a low-income housing trust fund. It also establishes a HUD monitoring unit to track housing market data, investigates institutional investor concentration (flagging purchases above 5% of a market), and directs the FTC and CFPB to study unfair tenant screening practices. The bill empowers state attorneys general to sue for violations and requires Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac to adopt renter-protection standards.
Why we flagged it
The operative mechanism is a temporary, crisis-triggered prohibition on excessive pricing in rental and sale markets, paired with new HUD monitoring authority and institutional investor concentration review. This is consumer protection framed as anti-gouging, not deregulation or subsidy.
What the text implies
- The 'unconscionably excessive' standard lacks a bright-line definition; enforcement will depend on fact-intensive comparisons to prior pricing and market comps, creating litigation risk and potential inconsistency across regions.
- The affirmative defense—that price increases 'reasonably reflect additional costs'—is broad and may be difficult for HUD to overcome, especially for landlords claiming inflation, maintenance, or risk adjustments.
- The 30-day renewable crisis window is short and discretionary; a Secretary could declare and redeclare crises, or avoid declaration entirely, making the protection intermittent and politically sensitive.
- Section 6's 5% single-purchaser and 25% aggregate institutional-investor thresholds trigger investigation but not automatic prohibition; outcomes depend on HUD's follow-up enforcement discretion.
- Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac renter-protection standards (Section 8) are delegated to the Director with no statutory floor, leaving the scope of 'basic renter protections' undefined.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Renters and homebuyers gain price restraint and transparency during crises, plus $1M+ in enforcement funding for affordable housing. However, the 'unconscionably excessive' standard is vague and fact-dependent, creating enforcement uncertainty; the affirmative defense for 'additional costs' may swallow the rule; and the 30-day renewable crisis window is narrow and discretionary, limiting real-world protection.
Who stands to gain
- low-income and extremely low-income renters and homebuyers (via Housing Trust Fund deposits from pen
- state attorneys general (expanded enforcement authority and standing)
Named in the bill
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB), State Attorneys General, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Housing Trust Fund, Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 14 Democrats.
- May 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Steven Horsford, the sponsor, reported $1,801,734 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Troopers Coalition — $20,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (15,202 characters) on Oct 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,388 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
“Congress targets housing price gouging—but enforcement hinges on vague standards.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3214 Report an error
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