As the 2025 Texas Legislative Session officially begins, over 2,300 bills have already been filed, signaling a surge in legislative activity compared to previous sessions. This increase reflects a combination of growing urgency among lawmakers and an influx of new legislators eager to address a range of state issues.
The Houston Chronicle, in partnership with the San Antonio Express-News, released an AI-powered analysis on January 14 that reviewed over 50,000 bills filed since 2015. Categorizing the bills into 31 policy areas, the analysis offers a snapshot of lawmakers’ priorities ahead of the 2025 session. With more than 2,300 bills already introduced by December 31, 2024, the data highlights key issues and shifts in focus compared to previous years.
Education tops the agenda, with nearly 17% of all bills focusing on public school funding, school safety, and the debate over statewide school vouchers. Crime and judicial reforms make up around 14% of filings, though this is a slight decrease from previous sessions.
Housing Takes Center Stage in Texas’ 2025 Legislative Session
As Texas’ population continues to soar, housing has become one of the most urgent issues for lawmakers in the 2025 session. With more than 104 housing-related bills already filed by December 31, housing has catapulted to the 8th most common policy area—up from 17th just a decade ago. This sharp rise reflects the growing urgency of addressing the state’s affordability crisis, particularly in fast-growing urban centers like Austin, Dallas, and Houston. As housing costs climb, lawmakers are grappling with the twin challenges of increasing supply while ensuring affordability for residents across the state.
Housing Tax Credits (Section 2306)
As Texas grapples with a growing shortage of affordable housing, particularly for low-income families, lawmakers are turning to the Housing Tax Credit (HTC) program as a potential solution. A number of bills have been introduced this session that seek to amend the HTC program, which is designed to incentivize the construction of affordable housing for low-income and workforce families.
Key Bills:
- HB 1865 (Moody): Increases the annual per development cap from $2 million to $3 million. It enables projects to be financially viable, developers can build more units per awarded application and addresses long-term viability for LIHTC properties.
- HB 492 (Morales, C): Requires all LIHTC projects to be located within two miles of a grocery store for better access to essential services.
- HB 211 (Bernal): Mandates that all units in affordable housing projects receiving financial assistance must be equipped with air conditioning, introducing scoring criteria for applications based on this requirement and imposing penalties for non-compliance.
- HB 1466 (Hayes): Requires political subdivisions in Texas to submit annual reports to TDHCA on multifamily residential developments receiving specific financial benefits, with TDHCA creating a publicly accessible database and providing an annual report to the legislature.
- SB 731 (Miles): Relating to required water pressure boosters for certain housing developments that receive an allocation of low-income housing tax credits.
- SB 732 (Miles): Relating to required generators or other power sources for certain housing developments that receive an allocation of low-income housing tax credits.
- SB 578 (West): Relating to the installation of surveillance cameras in housing developments receiving low-income housing tax credits.
Private Activity Bonds – 4% Housing Tax Credits
Several bills are focused on reforming the 4% Housing Tax Credit system and Private Activity Bonds, which help finance affordable housing projects.
Key Bills:
- HB 627 (Cortez): Proposes that major metropolitan cities and counties must hold a hearing and pass a resolution of no objection within 90 days of receipt of notification for developments proposing the using 4% HTCs. If the local government fails to do so, TDHCA shall deem the application as approved to move forward. This rule would only apply to counties with a population more than 1.2M or municipalities with a population more than 600,000. Refiled from the 88th Lege session.
- HB 293 (Swanson): Amends 4% HTC application requirements by prohibiting TDHCA from approving an application if a state representative opposes the project. Refiled from the 88th Lege session.
- HB 1718 (Plesa): Modifies the definition of “closing” for purposes of certain private activity bonds.
- HB 1342 (Gervin-Hawkins): Relating to the issuance of private activity bonds for qualified residential rental projects. Refiled from the 88th Lege session.
Incentives & Funding for Affordable Housing
To support the development of affordable housing, lawmakers are considering new financial incentives and funding mechanisms.
Key Bills:
- SB 653 (West): Relates to a refund of sales and use taxes paid on the purchase or use of building materials used to construct certain subsidized housing.
- SB 234 (Johnson): Establishes a workforce housing program to provide low-interest mezzanine loans for the construction and rehabilitation of multifamily workforce housing developments, aimed at increasing affordable housing availability for individuals and families earning up to 120% AMI. Funding for the program will come from appropriations, loan repayments, and donations, with developers required to use the financial assistance within 36 months and maintain affordability for at least 20 years. Refiled from 88th Lege session.
- HB 1810 / HJR 108 (Goodwin): Relating to the establishment of the workforce housing program by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
Tax Exemptions for Affordable Housing
Lawmakers are pushing for reforms to the property tax exemption system used by Housing Finance Corporations (HFCs), which can grant tax breaks to multifamily projects—sometimes outside their jurisdictions.
Key Bills:
- HB 21 (Gates): Relating to housing finance corporations; authorizing a fee.
Zoning Protests
The 20% protest rule, which allows neighbors to block new developments by gathering objections from a portion of adjacent landowners, has been a barrier to new housing projects. Some lawmakers and advocates are pushing to raise the protest threshold, making it harder for small groups of neighbors to stop new developments.
Key Bills:
- HB 327 (Bernal): Exempts LIHTC projects from local zoning protests, facilitating faster approval for affordable housing developments. Exempts LIHTC properties from certain zoning requirements in Section 211.006(d) of the Local Government Code, which requires a three-fourths vote of the governing body to approve zoning changes if protested by property owners.
- HB 1742 (Hickland): Concerns the process of protesting changes to municipal zoning regulations and boundaries. This bill increases the voting threshold for approving proposed changes to a zoning regulation or boundary from a majority vote to at least three-fourths of the governing body. Additionally, it raises the percentage of property owners required to file a protest from 20% to at least 50%. Supported by the Texas Municipal League & Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Municipal Permitting
Slow permitting processes at the municipal level have been a bottleneck for housing development. Developers have been calling for faster processing times to help address the housing shortage. Several bills have been introduced to mandate quicker responses from local authorities, aiming to reduce the delay in issuing building permits and speed up the construction of new homes.
Key Bills:
- HB 987 (Toth): Requires cities to grant or deny building permits within 30 days or provide a clear timeline for approval.
- HB 993 (Toth): Similar to HB 987 but sets a 45-day deadline and prohibits cities from denying permits solely due to processing delays.
- SB 210 (West): Amends municipal permitting requirements to expedite building permit reviews for affordable housing projects, requiring decisions within 50% of the standard review time.
Housing Density & Public Land Access
While efforts to relax zoning restrictions in 2023 fell short, lawmakers are once again considering reforms aimed at easing the path for higher-density housing in areas facing significant demand. At the same time, new proposals seek to expand affordable housing options by increasing transparency and access to publicly owned land.
Key Bills:
- HB 369 (Tepper): Relating to the authority of a municipality to regulate the number of dwellings allowed on certain property. Block cities from allowing higher-density housing in predominantly single-family areas.
- SB 583 (West): Requires municipalities with populations over 25K and counties over 50K to annually prepare and publish a list of publicly owned real property suitable for affordable housing. The list must be reviewed in a public hearing and made publicly available.
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) & Minimum-Lot Size Requirements
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), like granny flats or casitas, could provide a cost-effective housing option. However, many Texas cities have stringent local regulations limiting their construction. Lawmakers are working on bills to make it easier for homeowners to build ADUs. At the same time, minimum lot size requirements in many cities drive up home prices by mandating large plots of land for single-family homes. Reducing these lot size requirements could help make housing more affordable.
Key Bills:
- SB 673 (Hughes): Relating to regulation of accessory dwelling units by political subdivisions.
- HB 878 (Vasut): Reduces minimum lot sizes to 2,500 square feet in cities with populations over 85,000 and restricts local governments from imposing certain ADU regulations, including owner occupancy requirements and impact fees, while requiring a 60-day permit approval process.
Property Taxes
Following a historic $12 billion in property tax cuts in 2023, Texas lawmakers are looking at ways to use the state’s $21.2 billion surplus for additional tax relief, especially with escalating homeowners’ insurance costs. While property tax cuts remain a priority, many argue that more cuts won’t directly solve the housing affordability crisis, which is primarily driven by supply and demand imbalances.
Key Bills:
- HB 1430 (Metcalf): Extend the 20% cap on residential property tax increases to commercial properties.
- HB 264 (Bell, Keith) & HB 275 (Cain): Use part of the budget surplus for broader property tax relief.
- HB 165 (Vasut): Proposes eliminating property taxes entirely, but could cost the state over $80 billion annually.
Institutional Buyers
The growing presence of institutional buyers—corporations and investment firms purchasing single-family homes to rent out—has sparked concern among lawmakers. Critics argue these investors are driving up home prices and squeezing out first-time buyers. Governor Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick have signaled a focus on this issue for the 2025 session.
Key Bills:
- HB 287 (Harris Davila): Directs the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M to analyze the impact of institutional buyers on the housing market.
- HB 443 (Hinojosa, Chuy): Restricts institutional buyers to owning no more than 10 single-family rental properties in Texas at a time. The bill also imposes civil penalties for violating this cap.