Homeownership Was Never the Whole Point

Why the most bipartisan bill in years isn’t really about owning a home at all

A bonus edition of USTomorrow, written first for the readers who financially support us.

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First, a thank you, and what your financial support has unlocked.

I wanted the first donors-only edition of USTomorrow to be a little extra.

This is something new. It is the first edition written specifically for our paid subscribers who want to go deeper on an issue— the people who decided this work was worth a few dollars a month. I do not take your support lightly. You are the reason USTomorrow will be reaching even larger audiences soon. That is a direct line from your support to better work. Thank you.

85-5 and 358-32.

Those are the votes. Last week the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 85 to 5, and the House followed 358 to 32. In an era when we are told nothing can pass and no one can agree, the United States Congress just put up the largest housing bill in a generation, and it did it with margins you almost never see anymore.

Amy and I are living out our own American Dream.

I have to be honest with you. Even a news junkie like me almost missed it, the real work and the bipartisan passage by lawmakers in both chambers, on both sides of the aisle. The country still works when we let it.

As I write this, the bill has passed both chambers but the President has not signed it. In fact, he abruptly cancelled the signing ceremony and announced that he will not sign it until Congress also passes the SAVE America Act.

I will let others cover the daily back-and-forth. I want to do something the coverage is not doing, which is tell you why this Housing bill matters far more than the phrase everyone keeps reaching for.

That phrase is the American dream of homeownership. It is a good phrase. It is also hiding the real story, and if we only talk about owning a home, we will misunderstand what we just did.

Let me give you the heart of it now, and go into depth later.

If you have found the place you never want to leave, wonderful. That is its own kind of success, and no one should take it from you. But the American dream was never about owning the house you are standing in. It was about being free to move to a better one when you needed to. The dream has always been the freedom to go. For too many families right now, that freedom is slipping away, and this bill is about getting it back.

Here is what is waiting inside this edition. I make the case for three things the headlines are walking right past:

• Why your home is really how you find your neighbors.

• Why the dream was never the house. It was being able to leave it.

• Why a cheaper roof is the most pro-entrepreneur policy we have.

Plus the old stain none of this works without naming, and the one lesson from building RideScout that changed how I see every street in America. And there is one more thread I can only gesture at today, the quiet return of three generations under one roof, which I am saving for an edition all its own.

If you have been meaning to upgrade, this is the moment. Less than one fancy coffee a month. It funds the new teammates, the faster pace, and the full version of pieces like this one.

Consider this your invitation to come inside.