On The Money — Eviction ruling puts new pressure on Congress

Happy Monday and welcome to the new and improved On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. Subscribe here: digital-release.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

You’ll notice our new, sleek look as you read ahead. But we’re also excited to announce the arrival of a new member of the On The Money team—Aris Folley, who will be covering budget, appropriations and economic inequality for us. You may have already seen her byline here before and we’re excited to have her join the bunch.

Today’s Big Deal: Congress is under serious pressure to stop a potential eviction crisis. We’ll also look at how rising delta cases are harming working parents, why home sales are falling for the second straight month, and Joe Biden’s $9 billion in forgiven student debt.

For The Hill, I’m Sylvan Lane. Write me at slane@digital-release.thehill.com or @SylvanLane. You can reach my colleagues on the Finance team, Naomi Jagoda at njagoda@digital-release.thehill.com or @NJagoda and Aris Folley at afolley@digital-release.thehill.com or @ArisFolley.

Let’s get to it.

Lawmakers rush to keep people in their homes

Congress is under new pressure to keep millions of Americans in their homes after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s latest eviction moratorium.

• The court said in its 6-3 ruling late Thursday night that it is up to Congress to authorize a freeze on evictions, but lawmakers have been unable to make that happen.
• Members of Congress are urging state and local governments to quickly get federal rental assistance funds into the hands of eligible recipients. 
• They are also weighing additional legislative action to extend the moratorium and speed up the delivery of rental aid.

The snag: Democrats only narrowly control the House and the Senate, and they’ll almost certainly need GOP support to get the bill through the upper chamber. But they’re facing high stakes to prevent a wave of evictions at a time when coronavirus cases have increased due in part to the highly contagious delta variant and the number of unvaccinated Americans.

“Congressional Democrats have not and will not ever accept a situation of mass evictions,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) said in a statement Friday. Naomi has more here.

The path ahead: House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said she’s working on a proposal focused on speeding up implementation of the rental assistance program, given that Congress doesn’t have the votes to pass a moratorium extension.

LEADING THE DAY

Pending home sales fall for second straight month

Pending home sales fell in July, according to data released Monday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), declining for the second consecutive month amid a record-breaking surge in housing prices.

• NAR’s pending home sales index fell 1.8 percent in July after a 1.9 percent drop in June. 
• Sales were down 8.5 percent on an annual basis from July, falling off as home prices continued to shatter records through the first half of 2021.

“The market may be starting to cool slightly, but at the moment there is not enough supply to match the demand from would-be buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “That said, inventory is slowly increasing and home shoppers should begin to see more options in the coming months.”

The background: Both home sales and prices skyrocketed through much of 2020 as the onset of the pandemic and government response to the crisis kicked off a buying boom. But that rush of home purchases depleted an already insufficient supply of homes, pricing out many potential buyers. I explain what’s happening here.

Good to Know 

Roughly 750,000 U.S. households face eviction in the months ahead in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling striking down the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium, a new report released by Goldman Sachs has found.

Here’s what else have our eye on:

• The parent company of Cadence Bank agreed Monday to pay roughly $8.5 million in fines and community investments to settle charges of lending discrimination brought by the Justice Department and a federal bank regulator.
• Federal antitrust regulators will look into whether there are any “collusive” or otherwise illegal practices impacting gas prices following a request from the White House. 
• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin (R) announced what he is calling his “Day One Gameplan” on Monday, which includes tax cuts and new spending plans.
• Business lobbyists are increasingly optimistic that they can water down tax hikes and other measures in Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending plan opposed by corporate America.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Tuesday.