Arguably, America’s decades-long housing crisis was one of the issues that helped propel President Donald J. Trump into office—and rightly so. Decades of establishment failures (read: self-enrichment) have worsened an already dire situation. Soaring prices, stagnant wages, regulatory bottlenecks, and Bidenflation pushed home ownership further out of reach for ordinary people. Trump’s answer on the campaign trail has been consistent and correct: build more homes, and clear the roadblocks that make them unaffordable in the first place.
Under Biden, the home price-to-income ratio hit a record high. In 2022, a median-priced home cost 5.6 times more than the median household income. That’s the worst spread since the early 1970s. The reasons are obvious: inflation, interest rates, excessive taxes, environmental restrictions, and a shrinking supply of available homes.
Trump’s approach is straightforward: get Washington out of the way, and get America building again. Most Democrats, by contrast, seem to want to avoid this outcome. Despite finally admitting that Biden was an effective Oval Office vegetable, they still won’t repudiate Bidenomics. Naturally, they’re lashing out at private sector investment in the single-family rental (SFR) market—one of the few sectors offering working families a path to stability and home ownership.
Single-family rentals are not the problem. They’re part of the solution. They provide access to good neighborhoods and schools at a lower monthly cost than owning outright, which is often critical for my generation, especially those who graduated at the onset of the 2008 crisis and recently endured COVID lockdowns. Right now, renting can save families about 40 percent compared to mortgage payments. Even in a world where we want more home ownership, that matters.
Yet California, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina lawmakers are pushing legislation to cap the number of homes providers can own. These proposals are based on the false assumption that providers reduce housing supply. The data doesn’t actually support these claims, by the way. According to the Mercatus Center, institutional investors have never accounted for more than 2.5 percent of home purchases in a single quarter. That’s not exactly a takeover of the market.
Private investment increases the housing supply, creates jobs, and expands options. Attacking the private sector may score points on MSNBC, but it won’t build a single home.
Democrats are attempting to restrict the very actors capable of building, maintaining, and managing housing stock. This is a destructive approach to one of America’s biggest problems. Trump understands what’s required: deregulate, incentivize construction, and keep the government as far out of the situation as possible.
If Washington wants to help Americans become homeowners again, it should stop demonizing investors and remove obstacles. That means cutting bureaucracy, slashing taxes, rolling back zoning restrictions, and encouraging development. It means leadership with clarity and urgency—something the Biden White House never displayed.
Trump has. He’s laid out the blueprint. Americans need affordable homes. The private sector is best placed to deliver. All that’s required is the political will to stop worsening the problem.
Image by Pexels/Brett Sayles
