The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said that it applauds President Biden’s comprehensive housing plan, proposed during the State of the Union address.
According to the association, the plan would help ease the nation’s housing affordability issues and enable “more hardworking families to achieve homeownership and rental housing opportunities.”
“We commend President Biden for making housing and homeownership a top national priority,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas. “Many of the initiatives proposed by the president to build and preserve an additional 2 million homes—including a new $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-generation home buyers—are important steps forward to address a national housing shortage of roughly 1.5 million units and to boost housing affordability.”
The association also said that it welcomes the discussion on how the tax code can effectively incentivize homeownership, including through the proposed first-time home buyer tax credit, and believes that should be accompanied by a modernization of the mortgage interest deduction.
The NAHB has called for converting the mortgage interest deduction to an ongoing tax credit targeted to the middle-class, who typically do not itemize and do not benefit from the current homeownership tax incentives.
Harris also addressed demand-side through tax credits and how down payment assistance plays a vital role in tackling America’s housing affordability challenges. “Building more homes is the most important factor when it comes to easing shelter inflation, achieving a healthy supply-demand balance in the for-sale and rental markets, and bending the housing cost curve.”
Harris added that NAHB is seeking to work not only with the administration, but with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, state and local officials and all other public and private stakeholders to advance the cause of housing and increase the nation’s housing supply.
“Neither the public nor the private sector can meet the challenge alone,” said Harris. “Together, they must seek to implement and devise innovative solutions that allow the nation’s home builders to expand housing production. Any policy that seeks to ease shelter inflation and improve affordability without adding single-family or multifamily for-sale or for-rent housing is doomed to fail.”