The Biden administration recently announced a Housing Supply Action Plan meant to end the current housing shortage within just five years by offering financial incentives for communities and builders approving and constructing lower-priced housing, Realtor.com reports. Biden’s plan will give builders an edge over investors and make it easier for communities that allow new housing development to receive federal grants.
Though likely to make a substantial difference in low-income neighborhoods with a shortage of affordable housing, the plan isn’t geared toward first-time buyers, who account for the majority of all home purchases and keep housing demand high across the U.S.
The housing crisis is so pronounced because few homes went up in the aftermath of the Great Recession, when the housing bubble burst. Fast-forward to today, and many millennials are hitting peak homebuying years. They’re a larger generation than Generation X, which came before them.
“It will make a big difference in housing in the very low-income space and government-subsidized space,” says Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. But he isn’t convinced it will help most middle-class homebuyers.
“I’m not sure that it’s geared toward what we think is the linchpin of the market: first-time homebuyers,” says Howard.
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