February 27, 2026 State Capitol Report

The second year of the 104th General Assembly may have just begun but the real estate industry has already received a major win – thanks to all of you. Following six years of dedicated efforts by Illinois REALTORS® to address the state’s housing inventory challenges, Gov. JB Pritzker has now identified the issue as one of his top priorities for this legislative session.

REALTOR® advocacy will be key in getting the package across the finish line this spring. The Governor’s housing proposals, outlined in his State of the State Address on Feb. 18, reflect the core pillars of the solutions we’ve been championing for the past few years. Thus far, HB 5626 has been filed in the House and SB 4060, 4061, 4062, 4063 and 4064 have been filed in the Senate. These bills are modeled after our longstanding proposals. More on this soon!

Our new Governmental Affairs VP Melia Carter has jumped right in. Check out the videos below to get to know her and get a legislative update.

Committee action this week

HB 3564 was defeated on the House floor on Concurrence with a vote of 57-35, failing to meet the required 60 votes in favor to pass.  The prior day, the REALTORS® testified in opposition of the bill after the bill was called in committee without the removal of Amendment 3 – a move that violated the agreement the REALTORS® struck last year in the Senate.  After negotiating with the bill sponsor, the REALTORS® worked out a procedural move to remove the bad amendment, which ultimately replaced it with the bill language provided by the REALTORS® last fall.   Although the bill still has serious issues, we were able to mitigate the most egregious parts of the bill, which moved us to not take a position on the floor vote.  Due to the lingering concerns with the bill and prior opposition by the REALTORS® the bill was defeated.  A motion was filed to allow the sponsor another bite at the apple to pass her bill in the coming weeks, but we will take the win for now!

The bill passed out of committee with the promise there would be an amendment.  The bill would allow DuPage County to acquire real property for the purpose of creating or reserving affordable housing for persons making 150 percent of area median income annually.  A special grant program would be established for the program.  The bill allows DuPage County to impose a restriction on the title of an affordable housing development for up to 15 years.  Other counties have asked to be included in the bill.  REALTORS® are supportive of the creation and preservation of affordable housing and applaud DuPage County for the creation of this program.  We do have concerns, however, over restricting a property’s title and are working to set up a meeting with the bill sponsor to discuss these concerns.

Next Week at-a-Glance

Only the Senate will be in session next week. The House does not return until Wednesday, March 18, which is after the March 17 Primary.

Thank you for reading the February 27, 2026 State Capitol Report. Click here to read previous reports.