Housing Affordability Crisis: Challenges and Political Solutions

The housing crisis demands urgent action from local governments and presidential candidates to increase home building and affordability.

### Addressing the Housing Affordability Crisis: Challenges and Candidate Solutions
* 🏠 The housing market is experiencing a crisis, with **home prices and rent increasing significantly faster than incomes**.
* 📉 The primary cause of this crisis is the **imbalance of supply and demand**, where **low housing supply leads to high prices**, indicating a **pressing need for more homes to be built**.
* 🏗 However, building new homes is complicated by various hurdles, including **zoning regulations** and **local opposition from residents** who resist changes in their neighborhoods.
* 💰 Developers face numerous costs in the building process, such as **impact fees imposed by local governments**, which are intended to **cover the social costs of new housing developments**.
* 🔨 The actual construction of homes is also affected by rising material costs, particularly lumber, which remains **high due to tariffs and demand**, as well as the cost of labor and delays caused by **understaffed city inspections**.
* 🗳 In the 2024 election, former President Trump plans to **open federal land for housing development and cut regulations**, while Vice President Harris focuses on funding through **expanded tax credits and direct financial assistance for first-time home buyers**.
* 🤝 Both candidates acknowledge the need for local governments to take action, but builders and experts emphasize that **reducing tariffs on lumber and increasing the availability of land** are critical steps to alleviating the housing crisis.
* 🏛 Ultimately, while local and state governments bear much of the burden, the federal government has a **significant role to play in creating policies that facilitate affordable housing development**.

- [Narrator] This chart shows you what you already know. The price of homes has grown way faster than income. Rent too. - We're in a housing crisis. - Housing affordability crisis. - [Narrator] And the main reason is simple, supply and demand. When the supply of houses is low, the prices are high. When the supply is high, prices are low. - There aren't enough homes in this country for people that want to own. It really is about building more homes. - [Narrator] It's easy for the head of the Home Builders Association to say the solution is to build more houses, but he's right. And both presidential candidates think they can help. - It's too difficult to build and it's driving prices up. - Well, it's too expensive to build the homes and they're building them and they cost a fortune. - [Narrator] But how much can a president even do?

Here's how affordable housing is built, where that process can get unaffordable, and the differences between both candidates' plans. So you, a developer, want to build an affordable home. First, you have to find some land, and that's where you'll also find your first major hurdle, zoning. Maybe there's currently one old house you want to tear down and put up three new houses. Or the land is currently a parking lot, and you wanna turn it into an apartment building, the kind with businesses on the first floor even. These changes would all require the local government, like a city council, to rezone that plot of land. While some local governments may be willing to do that, you've got neighbors, not in my backyarders, citizens who don't want more traffic, they don't wanna line at Starbucks. They think there's pressure on the school system. They just don't want more people in their neighborhoods.

They will show up at the town hall meetings, and they will stop these developments. - [Narrator] But let's assume you get past the NIMBYs. Now you have to prepare your land. That can include the cost of demolishing that old house, and it will probably mean following local and federal requirements like getting environmental reports, checking for contaminants in the soil, or creating a plan for stormwater. - Important, but sometimes there are roadblocks. They take time, they cost money. You've gotta hire expert consultants, and that all, of course, impacts the ability to deliver an affordable home. - [Narrator] Then you have to go back to that local city council with your big plans to get approval, and they will charge you an impact fee for several thousand dollars. - Impact fees are designed to kind of translate the cost of housing, the social cost of housing in a way, into the community. And so if you're gonna build a development

and you're gonna impact the school system. We gotta make sure we have enough classrooms and enough books and enough teachers. - [Narrator] Often they will even require you to add more parking or repave the roads or build parks or sidewalks in the neighborhood. - More and more state governments and certainly the local governments have gotten out of the infrastructure business because it's really expensive. So what they do is they turn around and put that burden on the builder. - [Narrator] Of course, in order to sell a house at an affordable price, you have to build that house at an affordable price. Which is why most affordable homes get some kind of financial help. Like the low-income tax credit, where you direct cash help if you will later rent or sell to families who meet certain conditions. Then of course, interest rates can also affect the price to build your house. But the biggest cost to a home builder like you is the actual building of the house.

About half of that cost is materials, especially lumber. Lumber really is the backbone of building in this country. [Narrator] And it's expensive. It's come down from the pandemic highs, but it's staying high thanks to tariffs on Canadian imports and just general demand. If you got certain tax credits or want to sell to certain first-time home buyers with federal loans, you'll have to build to federal energy codes. That usually means having thicker lumber, better insulation, and better windows. Then there's the cost of the labor, not just the people hired to build the home, but the electricians, the plumbers, the tile guys. You could hire 20 or more independent contractors to finish the home. And throughout the build, you have to get city permits and have building inspectors come out. Understaffing at city hall or in these trades can lead to months of delays. Delays are delays, and time is money.

There aren't enough inspectors in the country to inspect homes and properties, so they're spread thin, which means it may take them a week to get out to your home. - [Narrator] Once you get everything inspected and approved, you can finally sell or rent that house. You did it, but for it to be affordable for this family depends entirely on this process and how much each step costs. So here's where the two 2024 candidates' plans come in. Former President Donald Trump wants to focus on these steps, especially here. - We will open up new tracks of federal land for large-scale housing construction so that we can get housing on the market. - [Narrator] The federal government does own a lot of land, especially in the West, but outside of military bases, it's mainly national parks and places where there's not really a housing crisis. One big exception is Nevada. The federal government owns a lot of land around Las Vegas,

where some neighborhoods have seen home prices nearly double over the last decade. Trump also wants to cut regulations, although he hasn't specified which ones. And when it comes to those NIMBYs, he's on their side. - I will save America's suburbs by protecting single-family zoning. The radical left wants to abolish the suburbs by forcing apartment complexes and low-income housing into the suburbs. - [Narrator] Vice President Kamala Harris's plan involves these steps, but she's really focused here, funding. With expanded tax credits and grants at this part of the process to fund more homes to be sold to first-time home buyers. - We will make sure those homes actually go to working and middle-class Americans, not just investors. - [Narrator] She also wants to create a fund to incentivize local governments to allow more housing, repurpose federal land, and also help out at the very end of this process.

- My administration will provide first-time home buyers with $25,000 to help with the down payment on a new home. - [Narrator] Harris also wants to create government programs to encourage more Americans to go into these trades to bring down delays and labor costs. - We will double the number of registered apprenticeships by the end of my first term. - [Narrator] But big things like interest rates or getting land rezoned are largely out of their hands. We asked builders, economists, and researchers what they would do. They all point at the same things. They want the tariffs on lumber reduced. They want to get more people into the trades. They want interest rates to come down, and they all point at this step. - I think the land comes first. You can have a pile of cheap lumber. If you have no place to build on, then there's no point in having a big pile of cheap lumber. We need local governments to have courage

to look at the NIMBYs and say, no, we are gonna promote housing production in our community. - [Narrator] While this process puts most of the pressure on local and state governments, the president can play a pivotal role in making housing more affordable. - There are things that the federal government can do to lower its burden of that regulatory stack, but then also use the bully pulpit to talk about getting more kids involved in the trades. Getting local governments to get out of the way and provide more land and more local land use provisions that allow for more home building. So there are roles for everybody to play in this, and it shouldn't just be pushed down on the local level. (dramatic music)

How Trump and Harris Would Solve the Housing Crisis | WSJ

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The Wall Street Journal

The price of homes and rent has surged, leading to a housing affordability crisis driven by low supply.

The solution of building more homes is complicated by zoning issues and local opposition.

Both presidential candidates aim to address the problem, but the effectiveness of their plans remains uncertain.

The Challenges of Developing Affordable Housing

Preparing land for development involves costly and time-consuming steps, including demolition and compliance with local and federal requirements.

Local city councils charge impact fees to developers, aiming to address the social cost of housing and fund community needs.

Builders often face additional requirements for infrastructure improvements, and financial assistance programs are crucial for making affordable homes viable.

Lumber is the main expense in homebuilding, with high prices driven by tariffs and demand.

Labor costs and the need for city permits and inspections contribute to delays in the construction process.

The affordability of housing for families depends on the overall cost of each step in the building process, leading to differing plans from 2024 candidates like Donald Trump, who aims to open federal land for large-scale housing construction.

Trump aims to cut regulations and protect single-family zoning in suburbs, opposing low-income housing developments.

Vice President Harris focuses on funding for first-time home buyers, offering $25,000 for down payments and incentivizing local governments to allow more housing.

Builders and economists emphasize the need for reduced lumber tariffs, increased trade workers, and land availability as key factors in addressing the housing crisis.

Promoting Housing Production: A Collective Effort

The president can play a crucial role in making housing more affordable by lowering the regulatory burden and encouraging youth involvement in trades.

Local governments should be encouraged to provide more land and flexible land use provisions for home building.

The responsibility of promoting housing production should be shared among federal, state, and local governments.