Virginia U.S. Senators. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined other members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee, Chris Van Hollen, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff introduced the Low-Income First Time Homebuyers (LIFT) Act to establish a new program to help first-time, first-generation homebuyers – predominately Americans of color – build wealth more rapidly. By offering new homeowners a 20-year mortgage for roughly the same monthly payment as a traditional 30-year loan, LIFT will allow them to grow equity twice as fast.

“The number one way that middle class Americans build wealth is through homeownership, an opportunity that due to racism and structural inequality has been denied to too many families of color. Today, Black families in this country have an average net worth just one-tenth the size of their white counterparts,” said Warner. “The LIFT Act will help close the racial wealth gap by allowing qualified home buyers to build equity and wealth at twice the rate of a conventional 30-year mortgage.”