The 2017 Opportunity Zone Law Could Boost Housing under Trump [Video]

As states, cities, metropolitan areas and rural communities wrestle with the implications of the 2024 elections, Opportunity Zones have emerged as a core pillar of what might come next in housing and economic development.

Opportunity Zones emerged as a little-known provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Focused on attracting private investment to distressed communities, the incentive allows people or corporations to defer taxes on capital gains if they park those gains in qualified Opportunity Funds that target their investments to state-designated Opportunity Zones. If investors stay in a Fund for 10 years, any additional gains from Fund investments are also exempt from taxes on the capital appreciation.

Six years on, the real-world impact of Opportunity Zones is beginning to be understood. As the Economic Innovation Group(EIG) reported earlier this year, “Opportunity Zones are home to about 10 percent of the country’s population but now account for 20 percent of all new market-rate multifamily apartment units being …