{"id":25459,"date":"2026-09-23T11:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=25459"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:32:24","slug":"merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>Senator leads groundbreaking new legislation to give federal match for money saved by first-time homebuyers for a downpayment on a home<\/em><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today introduced new legislation to help support the dream of homeownership for Americans by ensuring working families have a credible path to save up for a downpayment sufficient to purchase a modest home by age 30. Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden cosponsored the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>El <em>Homeownership Promise Act <\/em>would create Homeownership Promise Accounts, a basic new standard for Americans that would allow any first-time homebuyer who saves $1 for a downpayment on a house to get a $5 match from the federal government. As young Americans struggle to purchase their first home\u2014with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/06\/realestate\/first-time-home-buyers.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the median age of first-time homebuyers rising to 40 years old in 2025<\/a>\u2014Merkley\u2019s legislation is essential to restoring the dream of homeownership for millions of families nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>\u201cWorking families should be able to afford a decent home in a decent community<\/strong><strong>,\u201d <\/strong>dijo Merkley.<strong>&nbsp;\u201cFor millions of young Americans, homeownership remains further out of reach than ever before, keeping them from establishing the foundation that has enabled middle-class families to build equity for generations.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>\u201cMy new <em>Homeownership Promise Act <\/em>would restore the promise of homeownership\u2014one of the foundations that working families need to thrive\u2014by allowing all Americans to save for a home and live that piece of the American Dream,\u201d <\/strong>concluy\u00f3 Merkley.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>El <em>Homeownership Promise Act <\/em>har\u00eda:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Direct the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to create a matching downpayment grant, called a Homeownership Promise Account, that supports first-time homebuyers purchasing a median-priced principal residence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Establish an overall maximum contribution limit of $60,000 ($10,000 maximum combined personal, employer, and nonprofit contributions in addition to $50,000 maximum federal matching funds).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley, earlier in his career, led Portland Habitat for Humanity and has continued to fight for affordable housing at every level of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Senate, Merkley, when serving on the Banking Committee, led the charge to end predatory mortgages that had turned the dream of homeownership into a nightmare. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-statement-on-10-year-anniversary-of-wall-street-reform-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ban was passed into law<\/a> as part of the <em>Dodd\u2013Frank Act<\/em> in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently, he has led the fight to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-smith-lead-bicameral-action-to-ban-hedge-fund-ownership-of-residential-housing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">kick hedge funds\u00a0out of the\u00a0housing market<\/a>. His efforts produced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/senate-passes-landmark-housing-bill-with-merkley-inspired-provision-to-crack-down-on-hedge-fund-control-of-american-homes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first-ever ban on hedge funds buying up single-family homes<\/a> as part of the <em>21st Century ROAD to Housing Act<\/em>, which recently became law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Texto completo de la <em>Homeownership Promise Act <\/em>Se puede encontrar haciendo clic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/Homeownership-Promise-Act.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Un resumen de una p\u00e1gina de la <em>Homeownership Promise Act <\/em>Se puede encontrar haciendo clic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/Homeownership-Promise-Act-One-Pager-119th-Congress.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator leads groundbreaking new legislation to give federal match for money saved by first-time homebuyers for a downpayment on a home Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today introduced new legislation to help support the dream of homeownership for Americans by ensuring working families have a credible path to save up for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[131,116,128],"class_list":["post-25459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-economy","tag-housing","tag-safe-affordable-housing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senator leads groundbreaking new legislation to give federal match for money saved by first-time homebuyers for a downpayment on a home Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today introduced new legislation to help support the dream of homeownership for Americans by ensuring working families have a credible path to save up for a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Krakoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Krakoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Justin Krakoff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\"},\"headline\":\"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Economy\",\"housing\",\"Safe Affordable Housing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Press Releases\"],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\",\"name\":\"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Senator Merkley at a Senate hearing.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/\",\"name\":\"Merkley\",\"description\":\"Merkley\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb\",\"name\":\"Justin Krakoff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"es-MX\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justin Krakoff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/justin-krakoff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/","og_locale":"es_MX","og_type":"article","og_title":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley","og_description":"Senator leads groundbreaking new legislation to give federal match for money saved by first-time homebuyers for a downpayment on a home Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today introduced new legislation to help support the dream of homeownership for Americans by ensuring working families have a credible path to save up for a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/","og_site_name":"Merkley","article_published_time":"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Justin Krakoff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Krakoff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/"},"author":{"name":"Justin Krakoff","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb"},"headline":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative","datePublished":"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/"},"wordCount":434,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png","keywords":["Economy","housing","Safe Affordable Housing"],"articleSection":["Press Releases"],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/","name":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative - Merkley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png","datePublished":"2026-09-23T15:32:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-23T15:32:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es-MX","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-MX","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026_Press-Release-Photo_3.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Senator Merkley at a Senate hearing."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/merkley-proposes-housing-downpayment-savings-initiative\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Merkley Proposes Housing Downpayment Savings Initiative"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/","name":"merkley","description":"merkley","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es-MX"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/#\/schema\/person\/c3d47246c54d8abdcee52f34d61da4fb","name":"Justin Krakoff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-MX","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1ba3576c3bf3cb581e2e6031e8ab005ce4a057dc3aec2b380f46fe363a244496?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Justin Krakoff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/author\/justin-krakoff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25460,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25459\/revisions\/25460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}