On Friday, February 9th, President Trump signed the federal budget deal that was passed by the Senate on Thursday, February 8, 2018, and the House in the early hours of the following day. The deal contains a number of wins for real estate, including a temporary extension of federal flood insurance and extension of NAR-backed tax provisions that include relief from debt forgiveness, the deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums, and several energy-efficiency related provisions. Flood Insurance Extends the National Flood Insurance Program until March 23, giving lawmakers time to work out a longer extension that could last until September 30. It also adds $27 billion in mitigation and resiliency funds to address issues arising from last year's hurricanes. The extension makes $12 billion available under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to fund U.S. Army Corp of Engineers flood mitigation projects. Tax Extenders Retroactively extends for the 2017 tax year: · Mortgage Debt Forgiveness · Deduction for Mortgage Insurance Premiums · Deduction for Energy Efficiency Improvements on Commercial Buildings (179D) In addition to these three major tax extensions, there are also several more minor extenders that affect real estate, as follows: Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit (10 percent of amounts paid for qualified energy efficiency improvements (e.g., energy-saving roofs, windows, skylights, and doors) and 100 percent of amounts paid for qualified energy property (e.g., high-efficiency water heaters, air conditioning units, and furnaces), with respect to the taxpayer's principal residence); Residential Energy Efficiency Property Credit (extends and phases down the temporary components of the section 25D residential energy property credit for fuel cells, distributed wind property, and geothermal heat pumps); Credit for energy-efficient new homes (extends the $1,000-$2,000 credit for construction and sale of qualified new energy-efficient homes). All tax provision extensions are only for 2017.   Watch the video from NAR President, Elizabeth Mendenhall for more information.