President Biden’s Budget Lowers Housing Costs and Expands Access to Affordable Home Ownership

SOURCE: White House OMB Fact Sheet – Following are brief excerpts from the President’s proposed Fiscal Year 2024 Budget as they are related to low cost home ownership, particularly manufactured housing.

President Biden believes that everyone deserves to live in a safe and affordable home. Whether you rent or own, having a place to live that you can afford in a neighborhood with opportunities is the foundation for so much else in life.

The following are highlights of issues where manufactured housing would play an important role in solving the much needed affordable quality home ownership dilemma. The budget proposes….

• Invests in building and preserving millions of affordable homes for rent and ownership, and reducing barriers to housing production – from restrictive land use policies to practices that foster discrimination and disparate treatment in the housing market
• Invests in first-time, first-generation home homebuyers who have been locked out of the generational wealth building that can be associated with home ownership by providing down payment assistance.
• The budget includes $10 billion for planning and housing capital grants to incentivize State and local jurisdictions to expand supply and increase housing choice by reducing barriers to the development of affordable housing, such as restrictive zoning and burdensome permitting process.
• The budget provides $258 million to support 2,200 units of new affordable housing specifically for the elderly and persons with disabilities, supporting the Administration’s priority to maximize independent living for people with disabilities.
• As reflected in the President’s budget – HUD, through the Federal Housing  Administration (FHA), lowered its annual mortgage premium. This step is projected to save homebuyers and homeowners with new FHA-insured mortgages an average of $800 per year, lowering housing costs for an estimated 850,000 homebuyers and homeowners in the first year, and it builds on steps the administration has already taken, including changing FHA underwriting policies to allow lenders to use positive rental history in evaluating applicants’ creditworthiness for an FHA-insured mortgage.
• The budget would launch a first-generation down payment assistance program, providing $10 billion for a program to target down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers whose parents do not own a home and are at below 120% of the area median income or 140% of the area median income in high-cost areas.
• The budget would increase HUD funding for home ownership including $100 million for a down payment assistance pilot to expand home ownership opportunities for first generation and/or low wealth first-time homebuyers and $15 million to increase the availability of FHA small balance mortgages.

America faces a longstanding nationwide shortfall in affordable housing that has been growing for decades. The administration’s actions going forward should make it easier to build and preserve affordable housing such as manufactured homes; and incentivize state and local governments to reduce barriers to affordable housing development.