Affordable Housing Equity Act of 2025

On June 12, 2025, Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) introduced HR3964, the Affordable Housing Equity Act of 2025, in the 119th Congress. The bill proposes amending Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code to increase the eligible basis — from 130% to 150% — for low-income housing tax credit projects where at least 20% of units are designated for extremely low-income households (≤30% of area median income or 100% of federal poverty line, whichever is greater). The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means and has only one cosponsor (Rep. Suzan DelBene). There is no companion bill in the Senate. Legislative velocity is low: three actions occurred on the same day, all on June 12, 2025, and there have been no subsequent hearings, markups, or votes. The bill authorizes no direct federal spending; it operates entirely through the tax code by offering an enhanced tax credit basis for qualifying affordable housing projects. The mechanism is a tax expenditure — the forgone tax revenue from higher credits would reduce Treasury receipts. No appropriation is required. The Congressional Budget Office score is not publicly available, but the 150% basis increase could meaningfully improve the internal rate of return for developers building deeply affordable units. However, because LIHTC allocations are capped by state housing credit agencies (per capita volume cap), the actual increase in housing starts depends on whether states raise their allocations or reprioritize existing cap toward these projects. Structural winners are homebuilders with rental/affordable housing development exposure — D.R. Horton and Lennar ($LEN) — and banks active in LIHTC financing/equity syndication, notably Wells Fargo. Real market data shows has a negative 7-day change but a positive 30-day change; $LEN has similar recent trends; has shown a positive 7-day change. These price movements are more likely driven by broader housing market fundamentals and interest rate expectations than this early-stage bill. The bill faces a long legislative path: committee consideration in Ways and Means, potential markup, House floor vote, Senate introduction and passage (no companion exists), and presidential action. With a Democratic sponsor and single cosponsor in a Republican-controlled House (119th Congress, 2025-2027), the bill has extremely low passage probability in its current form. Related bills — HR2725 and S1515 (Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2025) — are broader LIHTC expansion measures with more cosponsors, indicating that a coalition for affordable housing tax credits exists but is focused on more comprehensive legislation.