A new bipartisan bill introduced in the US House of Representatives will enable families to put unused college savings toward a down payment.
The First-Time Homebuyer Empowerment Act (H.R. 7468) would amend the tax code to allow people to withdraw up to $35,000 in leftover college savings from their 529 plans tax free for the purchase of a first home. Currently, funds in 529 plans can only be used for education-related expenses or transferred to a retirement account.
The bill is being presented by Reps. Tom Barrett (R-MI), Tracey Mann (R-KS), Mark Alford (R-MO) and Lou Correa (D-CA).
“Too many families can’t afford homes that work for them, plain and simple,” said Barrett. “An easy first step towards changing that reality is to let homebuyers tap into unused college savings in their 529 accounts and put them towards purchasing their first home. I’m proud to join my colleagues on this legislation to incentivize saving for the future and help the next generation achieve homeownership.”
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means for consideration. At the moment, there is no Senate companion version of the bill.
Wonderful idea!!It would encourage saving for college and home ownership at the same time!
Love this!
this is amazing. We can keep contributing to it and until our kids are done with college and later on share the leftovers with them
Who has money remaining in their 529 college savings accounts?? Solve the actual problem of over priced and under performing college experiences. Currently the National average in an individual 529 account is approx $32,000 (to those unaware, the average annual cost of 1 year of college with books/supplies and dorm room is $38,000) So is this another distraction, attempting to create a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist, left over money in a 529 account? Less than 5% of parents can afford to put pre-tax dollars into a 529 account for the future use for their kids, and when it comes time to go to a trade school or a 4 year college, or BUY A HOUSE, what do you think that decision will be? Reworking a plan that less that 5% of US citizens can even afford to take advantage of is deflecting from the real issue. Less than 16 million families participate in the 529 plan. There are approximately 341 million people in the US!! Fix the real problem, over priced education systems (for profit colleges) and unaffordable housing!! Pass some real legislation that would help 100% of our population by eliminating the tariffs that increase the cost of living, building materials, utilities, transportation and labor!!! And require colleges to have job placement programs for every degree they teach!!