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While the preservation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Private Activity Bonds avoids an immediate devastating impact on affordable housing, this bill will exacerbate our country’s already yawning income inequality and will harm efforts to end homelessness and housing poverty. An estimated 64% of the bill’s benefits go to the top 1% of earners, at a cost to the country of over $1 trillion.

Industry Employment Reaches 10-Year High and Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.0 Percent; Association Officials Say Tax Rate Cuts Will Enable Firms to Increase Pay and Attract More Workers to Construction. Construction employment increased by 24,000 jobs in November to the highest level since November 2008

The U.S. Senate today passed tax reform legislation that the National Association of Realtors® believes puts home values at risk and dramatically undercuts the incentive to own a home.

The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement today in connection with the proposed Senate tax reform measure

David H. Stevens, CMB, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, offered the following statement praising efforts by Senate Leadership, Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Senator David Perdue (R-GA), to address language in Section 13221 of the Senate Tax Reform Bill relating to mortgage servicing rights (MSRs)

Elements of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” released yesterday by the House Ways and Means Committee would greatly harm affordable housing, economic revitalization and community development efforts nationwide. The National Housing Conference’s diverse membership of housing stakeholders opposes the elimination of proven tools like private activity mortgage revenue bonds and the New Markets Tax Credit, and supports improvement and expansion of the long-successful Low Income Housing Tax Credit

Senate Republicans today unveiled their vision for tax reform with a legislative package that includes the elimination of state-and-local tax deductions and a near doubling of the standard deduction, among other provisions.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the Law Center) released its Homeless Education Advocacy Manual: Disaster Edition, a resource that guides homeless students and their families displaced by a disaster on their rights to educational continuity and stability during disaster recovery.<

The Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance held a hearing today entitled “Sustainable Housing Finance Part III.” The hearing allowed the Subcommittee to further assess views and perspectives on the need to enact comprehensive housing finance reform

Statement from the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) following the release of tax reform legislation by the House Ways and Means Committee. “NMHC/NAA applaud the House Ways and Means Committee release of tax reform legislation. While we are continuing to review the legislative language, the tax reform package, as currently written, looks to encourage economic growth and job creation while protecting the multifamily industry’s ability to serve the 39 million Americans who call apartments

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) called on Congress today to move swiftly to implement comprehensive reforms to the nation’s housing finance system to ensure that housing credit remains readily available and affordable in the future.

Tax reform discussions took a major step forward this afternoon as leaders on the House Ways and Means Committee released its legislative proposal for an overhaul of the American tax code. The National Association of Realtors® believes the bill represents a tax increase on middle-class homeowners.

The tax reform legislation proposed by House Republican leaders takes a historic step in directly revising the mortgage interest deduction (MID), a $70 billion annual tax expenditure that primarily benefits higher income households—including the top 1% of earners in the country. The Republican tax proposal makes sensible reforms in lowering the amount of a mortgage against which the MID can be claimed to $500,000 for new home loans and doubling the standard deduction. This change to the MID would impact fewer than 6% of mortgages nationwide and would save an estimated $95.5 billion over the first decade

Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, today issued the following statement on the tax plan that will be put forth by Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) announced the promotion of Téa Gennaro to Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She will be responsible for managing and directing the accounting, finance and facilities functions at ABC and its affiliated organizations—the ABC Political Action Committee, ABC Retirement and Savings Plan, Construction Legal Rights Foundation, Trimmer Construction Education Foundation and ABC Services Corp.

The Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announce the formation of the “Joint Ginnie Mae – VA Refinance Loan Task Force.”