Top 5 Reasons to Support the Historic Tax Credit

In the last 30 years, the federal historic tax credit has revitalized communities and created 2.2 million jobs through the rehabilitation of more than 38,000 historic buildings. In some places, it has helped reinvent a vacant snack food factory as a world class contemporary art museum. In others, it has given a shuttered school new life as senior housing, and remade an abandoned brewery into a social services center for the disabled and disadvantaged.

Through these community-enriching projects, the federal historic tax credit is improving the lives of Americans in significant ways. The federal historic tax credit:

1. Creates Jobs

Because historic preservation is more labor intensive than new construction, it is proven to create more and better-paying jobs.

2. Is Good for Communities

Americans want to live, work, and visit authentic communities that reflect the area’s unique history and character. The historic tax credit makes saving and restoring those places financially feasible.

3. Is Good for the Local Economy

More than 75 percent of the economic benefits of historic rehabilitation remain in the local economies. This is because developers of historic buildings buy local and hire local.

4. Is Good for the Environment

Historic rehabilitation, by definition, focuses on existing buildings in existing communities, meaning that green space and farmland are unharmed. These places tend to be dense, walk-able communities that are close to public transit, schools and jobs.

5. Is a Smart Investment

Over the past 32 years, the federal historic tax credit has helped generate more than $22.3 billion, while only costing the Treasury $17.5 billion.

Are you convinced? Great. Join our campaign to protect and enhance the federal historic tax credit by signing our pledge.