For millions of Americans priced out of the housing market while corporate landlords snap up entire neighbourhoods, Wednesday was supposed to be the day help finally arrived. Instead, President Donald Trump cancelled the signing of a landmark housing bill just hours before it was due to become law, tying it to a separate voter ID measure that Congress has repeatedly refused to pass.
The median home price in the US now sits at around $403,000, up 77% from roughly $227,000 in 2011, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. And to afford the average home today, a household needs an annual income of $116,780. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act had been widely seen as the most serious federal attempt in decades to address that crisis, until Trump abruptly pulled the plug on its signing ceremony.
