But he stresses that “the vast majority of the provisions of this bill” will be felt more in the longer term, with the exception of a few provisions, such as those related to manufactured housing and loan limits.
Yonah Freemark, a housing researcher at the Urban Institute, calls the legislation “a step forward,” saying that he believes it will help increase the supply of homes and move toward making housing in the U.S. more affordable.
Similarly to Torres, however, he says that the improvements the bill will lead to in the rate of construction will be “incremental.”
“I think that over the medium to long term, the legislation has the potential to reduce housing prices, but not over the short term … the next two years,” he tells TIME.
He also cautions that the legislation will not altogether fix the significant issues that plague the American housing market.
“This legislation is impressive and shows that Congress does have an interest in housing, but the idea that this legislation will resolve Americans’ housing affordability problems is over-promising,” he says. “We can’t rely on any individual bill to fundamentally change the housing market, because the high housing costs that folks are experiencing right now are a combination of housing prices themselves, which have not really come down, and high mortgage interest rates, as well as inadequate growth in personal income––and those fundamentals are not going to change with this legislation.”