Alex Ossola

A new report out today showed that U.S.

home prices grew 1.3 percent for the year ending in December, its lowest annual gain since 2011.

That's according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures home prices across the country.

But that doesn't mean that buyers are finding homes to be more affordable, as mortgage rates and inflation have continued to weigh on buyers.

Recently, though, lawmakers have been working on it.

The House and Senate recently passed their first significant bills in decades aimed at solving America's housing shortage.

Rebecca Picciotto, who covers residential real estate, is here to tell us more.

Rebecca, what are some of the major points in both of these bills in both the House and the Senate?

Let's start with how they're trying to make it easier to build more homes.

So it sounds like they're doing a bunch of different things to try to make housing more available.

But do these bills include anything that would help people more easily afford buying one?

So, of course, it's not just Congress.

President Trump has had a few proposals, including barring people who own over 100 properties from buying single-family homes.

Do these proposals figure into the bills at all?

Thanks, Rebecca.

Thanks so much for having me.

And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon.

Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Jana Herron.

I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning.