Harris announces 4-year plan to reduce housing costs

Harris announces 4-year plan to reduce housing costs



CNN

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to unveil on Friday what her campaign describes as a four-year plan to lower housing costs. The plan includes a $25,000 down payment for first-time home buyers and measures to encourage housing construction, including tax breaks for starter home construction.

Harris plans to announce the plan as part of a broader economic policy speech in North Carolina. As CNN previously reported, the vice president is also announcing a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging aimed at reducing food costs.

Campaign officials had also said she planned to address prescription drug prices in her policy presentation on Friday, the focus of an event Thursday in Maryland where Harris and President Joe Biden appeared on stage together for the first time since the president dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

The high cost of housing and food has been some of the most persistent economic challenges facing the Biden-Harris administration, as Biden has received poor marks for his handling of the economy in general. White House officials have touted falling inflation in recent days but also acknowledged that prices for many goods remain too high, creating a disconnect between the bright spots in the economy and public sentiment.

“We are listening to you. The president is listening to you. The vice president is listening to you,” Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein said at a White House press conference on Wednesday when asked about Americans who do not believe the economy is better off today than when Biden took office.

Parts of Harris’ three-part plan build on proposals already put forward by Biden.

The plan promises to provide first-time home buyers with up to $25,000 as a down payment. The down payment would apply to working families who have paid their rent on time for two years. The support would be more generous for first-time home buyers. The plan, which the campaign says will be implemented during Harris’ first term, also includes a $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, as proposed by Biden earlier this year.

According to Harris’ campaign team, the plan would provide access to the funds to more than a million first-time buyers each year, including first-time home buyers.

“Many Americans work hard, save, and pay their rent on time every month,” the campaign says. “But after paying rent and other bills, they can’t save enough to make a down payment – and thus lose the chance to own a home and build wealth.”

The Vice President is also calling for the construction of three million new housing units. To stimulate construction, she wants to create tax incentives for developers who build first-time homes and sell them to first-time buyers. She also wants to expand existing tax incentives for the construction of affordable rental housing.

“There is a severe housing shortage across America and that is driving up prices,” the campaign said.

In addition, Harris wants to create a new $40 billion innovation fund to boost innovative housing construction – twice the size of a fund previously announced by the Biden administration. The fund will empower local governments, developers and builders to build more affordable housing and support new methods of construction financing.

Harris also wants to try to rezone some federal lands for affordable housing, similar to proposals by Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The plan also highlights two main proposals aimed at lowering rental costs in the U.S. The first would prevent landlords from using algorithm-driven pricing tools to set rents. The second would prevent wealthy investors from buying up properties and raising rents en masse by eliminating tax benefits for investors who buy large numbers of single-family homes to rent to.

Addressing the nationwide affordable housing crisis was also on Biden’s radar, and in his State of the Union address in March, the president unveiled new proposals to address the crisis.

He announced two new tax credits aimed at improving affordability and increasing the availability of homes on the market for purchase or rent. One $10,000 refundable tax credit is designed to help middle-class homebuyers complete the purchase of their first home. The other $10,000 tax credit is designed to encourage middle-class residents to put their first home on the market.

In addition, the president called on Congress to pass legislation that he said could lead to the construction and renovation of more than two million homes to close the housing gap and reduce housing costs.

Last month, Biden called for tax breaks for landlords who increase their rent by more than five percent per year.

The Biden administration has also asked federal agencies to explore whether surplus federal land could be used to build affordable housing.

Trump touted a similar proposal at two campaign events this week.

“We will release parts of the state for housing construction,” he said at a press conference on Thursday. “We urgently need housing for people who cannot afford what is happening now.”

In addition, the Republican National Committee’s platform states that the party will “promote homeownership through tax incentives and assistance for first-time buyers and eliminate unnecessary regulations that increase housing costs.” It will also “lower mortgage rates by dramatically reducing inflation.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Bryan Mena contributed to this report.

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