GRAND RAPIDS — Michigan now has additional tools at its disposal to build more affordable housing, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said after signing legislation aimed at expanding incentives for new developments and easing some zoning rules.
At a Grand Rapids event on Tuesday, July 21, Whitmer signed a series of bills creating a tax credit to incentivize affordable housing developments. Whitmer called for the credit in her State of the State speech, saying that Michigan is the only state in the region without one. The tax credit would work in conjunction with the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which subsidizes the construction and rehabilitation of affordable rental properties.
“At the end of the day, we want people to build their own careers, raise a family, put down roots, and it all starts with housing,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer said the new tax incentive will spur 2,500 new affordable homes to be built in Michigan per year.
House Bill 6074, also signed by Whitmer, bans large institutional investors from taking big bites out of Michigan’s housing market by banning corporations that already own more than 100 single-family homes from purchasing more.
“This legislation helps keep more of those homes in the hands of Michigan families instead of big business,” bill sponsor state Rep. Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton, said in a statement after the bill passed.
Concerns over private equity firms buying up houses have sparked action at the federal level — the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law after being passed by Congress before President Donald Trump declined to either sign or veto the bill. The legislation also included a provision banning private equity firms from buying up masses of single-family housing at one time.
Michigan’s new law combined with the federal measure will prevent large corporations from cornering housing markets, said Amy Hovey, executive director and CEO of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
“We don’t have a lot of large institutional owners of housing, but these bills and what happened at the federal level with the road to housing bill will help prevent a problem from happening in our state long term,” she told reporters following the bill signing.
Whitmer also gave her approval to bills aimed at increasing housing density by changing zoning requirements to allow certain apartment buildings to have just one staircase.
To address Michigan’s affordable housing crisis, Whitmer has called for increasing the supply of housing with her refrain “Build, Baby, Build.”
In her State of the State speech earlier this year, the governor described the home-building process as burdensome and a barrier to creating new affordable housing stock, a key selling point for younger adults seeking to live and work in Michigan.
Michigan has seen stagnation when it comes to new home builds — according to the Homebuilders Association of Michigan, the state issued 2,822 single-home permits in the first quarter of 2026, a 5.8% decrease over the same period in 2025.
In adding a tax credit specifically for the construction of affordable housing, Michigan joins neighboring states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and others in having a state-level program.
You can reach Arpan Lobo at alobo@freepress.com
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer signs bills aimed at expanding housing access in Michigan
Reporting by Arpan Lobo and Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Arpan Lobo and Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
