State of the Union Includes Proposals Intended to Stimulate the Housing Market

President Biden announced several initiatives related to housing in his 2024 State of the Union Address. The proposals included a pair of new tax credits – a $10,000 refundable credit for buyers, and a $10,000 credit for sellers of starter homes – and a set of administrative actions around closing costs, including a Fannie Mae pilot to waive title insurance with additional guidance on closing costs to be issued by the CFPB.

The Administration also plans to explore updating the statutory definition of manufactured housing—for example, through amending the chassis requirement—with the goal of identifying options that could provide manufactured homebuilders with more design flexibility and consumers with more options beyond local site-built homes for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units.

Regarding the rental market, President Biden referenced price-fixing driving up rents, and his Administration’s intent to begin “cracking down” on landlords who break antitrust laws. In advance of the State of the Union, MHI joined a coalition letter to the White House responding to these initiatives. See article, “MHI Joins Coalition Letter Responding to White House Announcements,” below for more details.

Following up on the State of the Union, on Monday President Biden released his budget for fiscal year 2025. The budget requests $72.6 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Of note for manufactured housing is the that the budget specifically announces that the Administration “plans to explore updating the statutory definition of manufactured housing—for example, through amending the chassis requirement”. As with 2024, the budget requests $14 million for the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs (OMHP). Other housing-related items in the President’s budget included an $18.8 billion Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to cover the difference between the cost of new construction and the sales price for single-family homes in low-income communities, tax credits for first-time home buyers and home sellers, $20 billion for an Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion that will issue large, flexible grants to local governments and other entities to eliminate local housing supply gaps and lower housing costs, $10 billion for a First-Generation Down Payment Assistance program, $3 billion for competitive grants to promote and solidify state and local efforts to reform eviction policies, and $100 million for HUD’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) competitive grant program that rewards state, local, and regional jurisdictions that make progress in removing barriers to affordable housing development. The budget also included commentary about defining the long-term role of Government Supported Enterprises (GSEs) in the housing finance system.

MHI is reviewing the proposals to ensure they have a positive impact on homeownership through manufactured housing.