Dear Chairman Wyden, Senators Cardin, Young, Moran, and Brown, and Representatives Kelly and Higgins:
On behalf of the American Bankers Association1 (ABA), I am writing to express our support for the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA) (H.R. 3940/S. 657).
By creating the neighborhood homes tax credit (NHTC), the NHIA would help finance the gap between the construction and rehabilitation costs of owner-occupied homes in distressed neighborhoods and the price for which such properties can be sold—addressing the needs of families throughout the country who are struggling to purchase homes as costs continue to rise and the supply of homes remains limited.
The NHTC also would build on the success of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) by attracting investments in communities with elevated poverty rates, lower incomes, and modest home values.
Enactment of the NHTC is also estimated to help finance the construction or rehabilitation of roughly 500,000 homes over 10 years—in addition to spurring $125 billion in total development activity, $56 billion in wages and salaries, $26 billion in federal tax revenue, and $12 billion in state and local government revenue—while adding over 850,000 jobs in construction or constructionrelated fields.
Further, the NHTC would only be available to investors after home construction/renovation has been completed and the property has been sold to a homeowner. Thus, investors—not the government—bear the underlying economic risk of development.
These proposals have garnered strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. ABA thanks you for leading these measures and requests quick consideration of these bills in both the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees.
Sincerely,
Kirsten Sutton
