The Senate’s passing of H.R. 1, the Republican-led tax-and-spending package, was met with applause from mortgage and housing industry trade associations, which were pleased to see that certain housing priorities were kept intact.
The House of Representatives had passed its version of the bill on May 22, and is expected to take up the Senate-amended version now that it has made it through a tight process that required Vice President JD Vance to cast a tiebreaking vote Tuesday.
Tim Rood, founder and CEO of real estate software company Impact Capitol and a frequent media contributor, told Scotsman Guide that White House and Republican leadership had been in “just get it done mode” leading up to the passage. Now that the Senate has passed the bill, he predicted the House should have enough time to consider it and get the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk by the weekend.
“This assumes the House Republican conference will quickly approve this bill, and that is not yet a guarantee,” Rood cautioned.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) stated in a press release that the Senate’s passage meant “NAR secured its top five legislative priorities to support homeownership and strengthen the real estate economy.”
Those five key priorities for NAR were: a permanent extension of lower individual tax rates; an enhanced and permanent qualified business income tax deduction; a temporary five-year quadrupling of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, beginning in 2025; protection for business SALT deductions and Section 1031 like-kind exchanges; and a permanent extension of the mortgage interest deduction.
“We’ve worked for months to educate Congress through original NAR research, analysis and polling to demonstrate the value and broad support for the many real estate provisions in this bill,” said NAR Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn. “Congressional leaders were receptive to our message. Our team had many conversations with lawmakers, and they thanked us for our public support and for providing the data they needed to support these provisions.”
Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Bob Broeksmit stated in a press release: “MBA is pleased that the Senate’s version of the bill maintains, and in several cases enhances, numerous pro-housing and economic development tax provisions that our board-level Tax Task Force, representing both our single-family and commercial/multifamily members, advocated for.”
Aspects of the bill that Broeksmit said MBA considers important include that it makes permanent the mortgage interest deduction, permanently reinstates the deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums and raises the federal debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
“MBA will work with congressional leaders in the coming days to ensure that these beneficial tax policies remain intact in any final package signed into law by President Trump,” Broeksmit stated.
Brendan McKay, co-founder and chief advocacy officer of the Broker Action Coalition (BAC), wrote in a text message to Scotsman Guide that “while the bill largely maintains the current status quo in housing and mortgage policy,” BAC is “glad to see it move through the Senate.”
McKay added that BAC’s top priority is the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act. That bill, which aims to curb “trigger leads” from credit bureaus that result in abusive spam calls to prospective homebuyers, passed in the House and Senate but difference between the two versions of the bill still need to be hashed out.
“Meaningful conversations in the Senate were essentially a non-starter while [the tax-and-spending bill] was still on their plate,” McKay said of the trigger leads legislation. “With it behind them, we’re hopeful those discussions can restart soon, and that the House and Senate versions can be aligned so the bill can be sent to the president’s desk.”
