Oct. 16 (UPI) — The Biden administration announced new federal actions Monday that aim to boost first-time homeownership, including a multibillion-dollar proposal that aims to build new homes for hundreds of thousands of low-to-middle-income families.
President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to fund the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit, which seeks $16 billion to build or rehabilitate more than 400,000 new homes, while allowing more families to start accumulating generational wealth, the White House said in a statement.
The package includes $10 billion in down-payment assistance to increase the number of first-time homebuyers, and another $100 million to supplement first-time homebuyers who can barely afford to dive into the market, which was beset by a lack of available homes, as well as high interest rates near 7%.
The broader initiative includes actions that aim to ensure “homeowners can afford to stay in their homes and make the repairs they need, and that the wealth-building potential of homeownership works equally for everyone,” the White House said.
The administration said it was taking immediate steps to enable potential homebuyers to start utilizing a portion of costs from accessory rental dwellings to enhance their incomes, which would expand the number of people who qualify for federally funded mortgage loans.
As part of the program, HUD now permits lenders to consider positive rental history and student loan debt as factors in evaluating an applicant’s creditworthiness to buy a home.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it was also revamping a program that provides financing for home improvement repairs.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meanwhile, was working to reform existing rules to help homeowners if they run into trouble paying the mortgage, the White House said.
Under the program, the Department of Veterans Affairs was taking extensive steps to help retired soldiers avoid foreclosure.
The Department of Agriculture will also award $9 million in loans to nine Native American Community Development Institutions to build homes for Native Americans on Tribal Lands. The agency said it would expand its eligibility criteria for Section 502 Direct Home Loans.
The administration has spent more than $12 billion so far to support homeownership through Biden’s American Rescue Plan’s Homeowner Assistance Fund, which helped prevent nearly 400,000 foreclosures over the past year, the Treasury Department said.
