House passes Trump tax bill; Walmart plans job cuts; Existing home sales decline

Real estate groups were among business organizations lauding provisions of a sweeping tax bill passed early Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim 215-214 vote and sent to the Senate. But at least one builder organization cautioned against the bill’s proposed early termination of certain clean-energy tax credits.

The National Association of Home Builders said it would continue to advocate for those credits as the Senate reviews the tax bill, which calls for some of those credits to be terminated as soon as Dec. 31, 2025. Two of those federal programs — one offering a $2,500 credit for energy-efficient new homes and another giving a 30% credit for solar upgrades to existing properties — are scheduled under current law to run through 2032.

An NAHB statement said voluntary tax incentives are “the most effective way” to promote energy efficiency. “We also recognize that builders, remodelers, and homeowners made strategic decisions based on these tax credits, and at a minimum, Congress must provide a sufficient transition period.”

Much-debated tax and spending cuts are part of a larger domestic policy package put forward by President Donald Trump, and they face considerable opposition in the Senate. The NAHB and other business groups supported various other provisions in the House-passed measure, including those preserving or increasing tax deductions for state and local tax payments made by businesses and individuals.

The National Association of Realtors lauded enhancements to the low-income housing tax credit and said other provisions would provide estate tax certainty and renew incentives encouraging development in regional “opportunity zones.” An NAR statement said the bill also creates tax-advantaged child investment accounts that can be used for qualified expenses such as first-time home purchases, “all of which strengthen housing affordability, investment, and generational wealth.”

Walmart was reported to be planning to cut about 1,500 office jobs in its global technology operations as part of streamlining efforts, as retailers seek ways to reduce costs at a time of uncertainty over future effects of trade tariffs.

“We are reshaping some teams in our Global Tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where we have identified opportunities to remove layers and complexity, speed up decision-making, and help associates innovate rapidly,” Walmart executives Suresh Kumar and John Furner said in a memo to office-based workers, emailed by the company to CoStar News on Thursday. “We are eliminating roles as well as opening some new roles aligned with our business priorities and growth strategy.”

Walmart’s planned cuts are expected to affect teams handling advertising, e-commerce fulfilment and other tech-related operations, reports indicate. The operator of more than 10,000 stores employs about 2.1 million people worldwide, according to the Walmart website.

The memo does not specify the number of planned cuts, and a Walmart spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that reductions are not related to tariffs. Walmart posted strong annual sales growth for its latest quarter, though executives said the world’s largest retailer was likely to raise prices on some items due to expected effects of tariffs, particularly on goods from China.

April’s U.S. sales of existing single-family homes slid 0.5% from the prior month and dropped 2% from a year earlier, even as the median sale price hit a high for the month at $414,000, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

The trade group cited elevated mortgage rates among other lingering challenges after the number of homes sold in April, adjusted for seasonal patterns, was on pace for 4 million sales a year. The inventory of unsold existing homes rose 9% from the previous month to 1.45 million at the end of April, the equivalent of 4.4 months’ supply at the current monthly sales pace.

“Home sales have been at 75% of normal or pre-pandemic activity for the past three years, even with seven million jobs added to the economy,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. He said “any meaningful decline” in mortgage rates could help put home purchases more in line with pent-up demand.

The latest national lender survey by Freddie Mac showed 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaging 6.86% for the week ended May 22. That was up from 6.81% in the prior week but lower than 6.94% a year earlier.