A Phil Hall Op-Ed: Housing affordability – or, perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof – has quietly become a major issue in this year’s presidential election. I am using the word “quietly” because for too long the subject has not been talked about by the White House and the mainstream media.
A newly published survey by the brokerage Redfin suggests the enforced silence in discussing housing affordability could impact the Biden re-election campaign. Redfin found more than half (53.2%) of homeowners and renters declaring that housing affordability will impact who they plan to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. In addition, nearly two-thirds (64.2%) of homeowners and renters said housing affordability makes them feel negative about the economy. Redfin polled nearly 3,000 Americans last month for this survey.
“Housing affordability is top of mind for voters because elevated mortgage rates and home prices, along with an acute housing shortage, have pushed the dream of homeownership out of reach for many Americans,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “While the economy is strong on paper, a lot of families aren’t feeling the benefits because they’re struggling to afford the house they want or already live in. As a result, many feel stuck, unable to make their desired moves and life upgrades.”
At the moment, President Biden’s answer to the shortage of affordable homeownership and rental housing opportunities is to blame former President Trump. Right before last Thursday’s State of the Union speech, the White House put out a release that claimed, “President Biden believes housing costs are too high, and significant investments are needed to address the large shortage of affordable homes inherited from his predecessor and that has been growing for more than a decade.”
Today, in announcing the resignation of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, the White House issued a statement attributed to the president that said, “When I took office, we inherited a broken housing system, with fair housing and civil rights protections badly dismantled under the prior administration.”
The strategy of insisting everything is Trump’s fault is not going to work. Biden has been in the White House for more than three years and during that time he did absolutely nothing to address housing affordability issues – last week’s State of the Union was the first time he gave a speech that acknowledged there were problems in the housing market, but that subject was buried in the middle of a rambling text that also sought to blame affordability obstacles on the title insurance industry and on “big landlords” who supposedly violated “antitrust laws” with price-fixing and rent hikes. He also offered a few measly tax credit proposals that should have been put forth after he became president and not a few months before he faces re-election.
National Association of Home Builders President Carl Harris had no time for Biden’s deflections – following the State of the Union, he said his organization “looks forward to working with the administration and Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress to help in this effort by eliminating excessive regulations; opposing restrictive, costly national energy code proposals that will raise housing costs while providing little energy savings to consumers; promoting careers in the skilled trades; and alleviating permitting roadblocks. These common-sense solutions will bend the housing cost curve, reduce housing inflation and the overall inflation rate, enable builders to boost attainable housing production and put the economy on a firmer footing.”
Redfin’s Daryl Fairweather is also looking past Biden’s excuses by calling attention to the lopsided supply and demand balance that disfigures today’s housing market.
“What the housing market needs most to address the affordability crisis is more supply,” Fairweather said. “If two million homes are actually built over the next several years like President Biden is proposing, that’s where the rubber will meet the road in addressing housing affordability.”
Biden unwisely ignored the problems facing the housing market for too long. If the Redfin survey is correct, then the rubber meeting the road will belong to the tires on the limousine taking Biden out of the White House next January.
