[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 14 (Thursday, January 25, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S270-S271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. REED (for himself, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. 
        Blumenthal, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Fetterman, and Ms. Baldwin):
  S. 3673. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose 
a tax on the purchase of single-family homes by certain large 
investors, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. REED. Madam President, today, I am introducing the Affordable 
Housing and Homeownership Protection Act with Senators Smith, 
Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Klobuchar, Fetterman, and Baldwin. Our bill 
would provide up to $50 billion to help build and preserve 
approximately 3 million units of affordable housing and would be fully 
paid for through a transfer tax on investors who acquire and hold more 
than 15 single-family homes.
  Driven by a shortage of as many as 6.8 million homes nationwide, home 
prices have surged 39 percent and rents 31 percent over the last 4 
years, according the National Association of Realtors and Zillow. 
Higher rents and fewer opportunities for home ownership are devastating 
for millions of families. As housing costs skyrocket, more households 
are priced out of home ownership, while renters have less to spend on 
food, clothing, and other everyday necessities.
  Low-income Americans are particularly strained. The National Low 
Income Housing Coalition estimates that 73 percent of extremely low-
income households spend more than half their income on housing. 
Unsurprisingly, homelessness has risen in line with housing prices and 
is up 15 percent since 2019.
  Unfortunately, Federal investments in low-income housing are 
insufficient to solve this affordability crisis. Indeed, researchers at 
Harvard University found that the three largest Federal housing 
programs serve nearly 300,000 fewer households today than they did 20 
years ago, while approximately 25 percent more households are eligible 
but can't get aid.
  At the same time, investors are buying a greater share of single-
family homes sold each year--many of which they hold as rentals--
preventing more families from reaching home ownership and often driving 
up rents. Most households cannot compete with the largest investors, 
who are typically private equity and other institutional investors. 
That is because large investors can use their financial might to make 
all-cash offers, waive, contingencies, and provide other concessions 
that individual buyers simply cannot match. Through last October, more 
than one out of every four single-family homes sold in 2023 were bought 
by investors, not hard-working households--a 69-percent increase from 
investors' prepandemic share of home purchases.
  Our Affordable Housing and Homeownership Protection Act would tackle 
both our affordable housing crisis and institutional investors who 
crowd out families in the housing market. It would raise $50 billion by 
taxing investors who purchase large numbers of single-family homes, 
with higher tax rates for the largest investors. Revenue would be split 
between the Housing Trust Fund, HTF, and Capital Magnet Fund, CMF, to 
help build and rehab over 300,000 rental units for extremely low-income 
Americans through HTF grants and help finance 2.7 million homes for 
low-income families via CMF, which leverages private investments.
  In other words, our bill would help build and rehabilitate millions 
of homes for American families and boost households competing to buy 
homes with deep-pocketed investors, all without raising the deficit. 
This is a commonsense, fair proposal that tackles perhaps our Nation's 
biggest challenge.
  I thank the bill's endorsers--the National Low Income Housing 
Coalition, National Housing Law Project, National Consumer Law Center 
on behalf of its low-income clients, National Housing Resource Center, 
Americans for Financial Reform, and Consumer Action--and urge my 
colleagues to support this important legislation.

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