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Rep. Latimer speaking on House floor about his housing bills.<\/p>\nDemocratic Rep. George Latimer, whose New York 16th Congressional District covers parts of Westchester and the Bronx, has introduced two bills that are designed to help lower housing costs, with one of the bills targeting costs faced by senior citizens who are seeking to age in place in their current homes.<\/p>\n
Latimer\u2019s bill H.R. 9554, Senior Accessible Housing Tax Credit Act of 2026, specifically targets senior citizens who have reached at least age 60 before the close of the then-current tax year and who are trying to age in place in their current homes. It\u00a0would create a new tax credit for that group to help cover the costs of modifications needed to meet the needs of the seniors. Typical would be the installation of wheelchair ramps and handrails, the widening of doorways, and the replacement of kitchen or bathroom faucets\u00a0and toilets. The tax credit would be equal to the cost of eligible expenditures, with an annual credit limitation of $10,000.<\/p>\n
The benefits of the bill would not apply to nonresident aliens. In the case of married couples, one of the spouses must have reached age 60 by the close of the tax year in order for qualifying expenses to be eligible for tax credits.<\/p>\n
The bill was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee as well as the Committee on Financial Services where it will be held for a length of time to be determined by the Republican House Speaker\u00a0Mike Johnson.<\/p>\n
Latimer\u2019s second housing cost bill designated as H.R. 9555, Home Mortgage Interest Credit Act\u00a0of 2026 would create a new tax credit for mortgage interest paid, up to $2,000 in qualifying interest. According to Latimer\u2019s description, qualified mortgage interest would be defined as interest paid on secured mortgage debt used to acquire, construct, or substantially improve the taxpayer\u2019s principal residence.<\/p>\n
Rep. Latimer speaking on House floor about his housing bills.<\/p>\n
Latimer said that if his bill were adopted it would create consistency in the tax code for mortgage holders who take the standard deduction, similar to mortgage holders who itemize their taxes through the home mortgage interest deduction. In a typical situation, a mortgage holder who takes the standard deduction and pays $1,600 in mortgage interest in a given year would be able to claim a $1,600 mortgage interest credit on their taxes.<\/p>\n
H.R. 9555 was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn New York and across the country we are in an affordable housing crisis,\u201d Latimer said in a speech on the House floor. \u201cAccording to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta a household in the New York City region making a median income would need to spend 65% of their income to afford the average home. No family should have to spend over half of their income on housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latimer said that the bills he introduced would help families better afford home ownership and allow seniors to age in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs county executive I worked to construct affordable housing units and deliver options for families looking to move to my home county of Westchester,\u201d Latimer said. \u201cBut more action is needed. We must work toward a sustained all-of-government approach through funding, tax policy and regulatory reform to fully tackle this affordability problem. While the president claims that no one cares about housing I look forward to moving these common sense proposals forward with my colleagues to make affordable housing available again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic Rep. George Latimer, whose New York 16th Congressional District covers parts of Westchester and the Bronx, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-300402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}