American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2018

This bill addresses housing affordability and access by

• establishing a Local Housing Innovation grant program to support efforts to remove barriers to affordable housing;
• reauthorizing and increasing funding for various specified housing programs;
• establishing a Middle Class Housing Emergency Fund to support the construction of affordable rental-housing units;
• establishing a down-payment assistance program;
• establishing a formula grant program to assist borrowers who have negative equity in their homes;
• expanding the applicability, and increasing the penalties for violations, of certain requirements for financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of lower-income communities;
• expanding certain protections under the Fair Housing Act; and
• otherwise revising provisions related to housing assistance.

The bill also lowers estate-tax thresholds, establishes new tax rates above those thresholds, and otherwise modifies provisions related to transfer taxes.