Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear.

In his State of the Union address, President Bineble announced tonight a series of initiatives

to make housing more affordable.

As NPR's Laura Wamsley reports, the plan calls for to make housing more affordable.

As NPR's Laura Wamsley reports,

the plan calls for building and renovating

more than 2 million homes.

Biden says housing costs are too high,

and he's launching a plan that aims to reduce them,

in part by amping up supply and helping more people to move up the housing ladder.

Among the White House proposals is a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Biden is also calling for the expansion of tax credits that support the building and

renovating of homes to be affordable housing. Jenny Schutz, a housing policy

expert at the Brookings Institution, says that renovating existing homes but not making them too fancy, is a smart approach.

It does help specifically on supply of low-cost rental housing for low-income households,

which is just a really, really hard niche for the market to serve.

Congressional legislation will be required for the parts of Biden's plan that cost money,

meaning they may well not happen.

Laurel Wamsley, PR News, Washington.

The President's also expected to address the broader economy in excerpts from tonight's

speech.

He talks about building the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down.

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