With home prices and mortgage rates rising in recent years, housing affordability has been one of the hot-button issues in the lead-up to this year’s presidential election.
While a president can’t unilaterally reshape the nation’s housing market — and whoever wins is likely to face difficulties passing their agenda in Congress — their housing policies can have a major influence.
Here's a quick look at each of their policy proposals and what our senior economist, Jacob Channel, thinks of their ideas.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ Housing Policy Proposals:
- Build 3 million housing units over the next 4 years: "While building 3 million new units may not be enough to end the nation’s supply shortage, that amount of new construction would likely help bring down home prices and make it easier for would-be buyers or renters to purchase or rent a home."
- Lower rents by imposing and enforcing stricter regulations on large corporate landlords: "These acts could help reduce the number of large corporate landlords in the U.S., increase competition among landlords and potentially help push down rent prices."
- Give first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 to put toward a down payment on a home: "There’s conflicting research as to whether this proposal would help people buy, or if it would simply result in higher prices."
Former President Donald Trump’s Housing Policy Proposals:
- Reduce immigration: "While fewer immigrants could free up some housing for those who remain in the U.S., the economic fallout from mass deportations would be catastrophic for the nation’s broader economy."
- Eliminate regulations: "Fewer regulations and more available space on which to build may reduce homebuilding costs and help increase the housing supply. That said, limiting regulations won’t be enough to cut prices in half, and ending some isn’t a cure-all for the problems plaguing the nation’s housing market."
- Lower mortgage rates: "The president doesn’t set mortgage rates. If elected, Trump probably wouldn’t be able to arbitrarily decide to lower them even if he wanted to."
You can check out the entire report and Jacob's full commentary here: https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/us-election-housing-issues/
