After weeks of paralysis, the U.S. government is back up and running, reopening the federal programs that the housing market depends on. The House of Representatives approved a funding bill on Wednesday, ending what had become the longest government shutdown in American history. The Senate had passed the measure earlier in the week, and President Donald Trump signed it soon after.
For homebuyers, sellers and real estate professionals, the restart couldn’t come soon enough. Essential housing programs had been frozen, leaving families stuck in limbo, lenders unable to close deals and insurers unable to issue coverage. Shannon McGahn, chief advocacy officer at the National Association of Realtors, called the reopening “welcome news for Americans whose home purchases and insurance renewals have been delayed or derailed.”
Lenders across the country had been wrestling with stalled FHA, VA and USDA loans, which serve many first-time buyers and rural homeowners. New flood insurance policies under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) had also been put on hold. Those delays rippled through local markets, slowing sales, postponing closings and creating a general sense of uncertainty.
McGahn warned that even though the government is open again, bottlenecks won’t disappear overnight. Many housing-related agencies are returning after a six-week pause, meaning loan files, insurance requests and underwriting reviews have piled up. “I would expect some additional delays as they work through them,” she said.
The funding package Congress approved doesn’t just reopen agencies—it also extends the NFIP’s authority to issue new policies through January 30, 2026. Flood insurance is required for mortgages in many coastal and river-adjacent areas, so this extension matters for thousands of buyers. The legislation also funds several major spending bills tied to agriculture, military construction and legislative agencies through the end of fiscal year 2026. Those bills cover the USDA and VA loan programs, two lifelines for rural buyers and veterans.
Furloughed federal employees will return to work with back pay, restoring the staff needed to keep everything from loan processing to inspections moving again. But Congress still faces another deadline in January, when additional funding bills must be passed to keep the rest of the government running.
Throughout the shutdown, the National Association of Realtors ran an aggressive advocacy campaign in Washington and around the country. Their goal was simple: get Congress to understand how deeply the shutdown was hurting the real estate market and, by extension, the broader economy. Real estate accounts for nearly a fifth of U.S. GDP, so even short disruptions can have significant economic effects. A shutdown of this length created daily setbacks for buyers, sellers and entire communities.
Before the shutdown began, NAR’s advocacy team launched a targeted Call for Action urging its federal representatives to protect the NFIP and highlight how essential it is to homeowners. Within two days, those efforts reached three-quarters of Congress. Soon after, almost every lawmaker had been briefed.
Once the shutdown hit, NAR gathered more than 600 firsthand stories from Realtors nationwide. These accounts described stranded buyers waiting for loan approvals, families stuck between moves and transactions falling apart at the last minute. NAR then organized dozens of state and local Realtor associations to send letters to their own members of Congress, pressing for an immediate reopening.
The lobbying effort did not stop there. NAR’s Washington team contacted all 535 members of Congress, sharing economic impact data and individual accounts that showed how the shutdown was dragging down the housing market. High-level meetings were held with the most influential lawmakers and committee leaders on Capitol Hill, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Republican Leader John Thune and House Financial Services Committee leaders.
The advocacy also extended into the executive branch. NAR met with senior officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Administration, the Treasury Department, the VA and even the White House. The message in all these meetings was consistent: housing must remain a priority because its stability supports the broader economy.
Now that the government is back open, the heavy lifting begins. Agencies must clear the backlog, lenders must re-start processing and thousands of buyers will try to regain lost momentum. The shutdown may be over, but its effects will take time to unwind. The reopening, though, marks an important step toward restoring confidence in a market that depends on predictable federal support.
