During his 2024 State of the Union Address, President Biden made a number of policy proposals aimed towards addressing the ongoing crisis of housing affordability.

Biden’s proposals included the establishment of a tax credit towards mortgages over the next two years, the elimination of title insurance fees for federally-backed mortgages, and an initiative to build or renovate two million homes, with the aim of reducing rent rates across the nation.

The President of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Kevin Sears, released a statement praising Biden’s proposals.

“NAR first sounded the alarm on this issue with original research showing a nationwide shortage of 5.5 million affordable housing units. We commend President Biden’s commitment to an all-of-government approach to solve this problem. NAR has proposed and advocated for many of these proposals, which together would make serious headway toward fixing this crisis,” Sears said.

Sears said that the NAR supports the wide-spectrum approach to tackling the housing crisis, but that praise was tempered by a mild rebuke of the Biden Administration’s regulatory policies on rental properties, which Sears called “onerous” and warned “could drive small property owners from the market and discourage future investment.”

These proposals from the Biden Administration would, of course, first need to be enacted through legislation, where the looming 2024 Presidential Election casts a shadow that is long and deep.

Lawmakers from the Republican Party would be unlikely to vote to enact legislation that could give Biden a popular boost against his Republican opponent.

Moving from the national stage to a local scale, the residential real estate market here in Huntsville continues to show brisk activity.

According to the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors (HAAR) report for the week of February 24, 2024, pending sales increased by 11% for single-family units and 77% for townhouse/condo units. New listings of single-family units increased by 3.2%, but remained flat for townhouse units. Finally, inventory increased by 15.4% for single-family units, and 41.2% for townhouses.

As always, the Huntsville Business Journal will continue to monitor developments in the real estate market, both nationally and here at Huntsville.