Posted on 04/20/2026 8:00:36 AM PDT by millenial4freedom
WASHINGTON, D.C. — White House economists estimate the United States has a shortage of 10 million houses, according to a new report out Monday — and say regulatory cuts could lead to more construction to stabilize prices, increase home ownership and fuel faster economic growth.
Trump has signaled that taming high housing costs is a top priority for his administration.
The housing chapter of the annual economic report, obtained by The Associated Press before its release, lays out a blueprint for how more home construction would help the middle class and the overall economy, setting up an argument that Trump could make to voters.
Put together by staff at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, it finds there would be 10 million more houses in the country if “homebuilding and the growth of the single-family housing stock had continued at their historical pace instead of falling dramatically” after the 2008 global financial crisis. That crisis was caused largely by a wave of defaults in the housing market, where prices had been fueled by problematic lending practices.
The analysis notes that home prices have risen 82% since 2000, while incomes are up just 12% — a mismatch that had been masked for a period by historically low mortgage rates. But when rates jumped with inflation in the aftermath of the pandemic, monthly mortgage costs also rose for buyers, and affording a home became a top concern for voters under 40.
The report says that various regulations on home construction add more than $100,000 in costs to building. That cost includes changing the building codes over the past decade, compliance costs and zoning approval fees, among other expenses.
By the report’s estimates, a reduction in those regulatory costs could help spur construction of as many as 13.2 million homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nsjonline.com ...
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A 50-unit condominium complex has 50 separate property titles and is sold off by the developer over time. The worst-case scenario for a lender in this case is that the developer completes the project but then goes bankrupt after only selling 10 of the units. So the bank may be forced to take possession of the remaining 40 units and try to sell them. Meanwhile, the property taxes must still be paid and the bank will be responsible for paying 80% of the condo fees for units that are vacant. The trash still needs to be picked up, the landscaping must still be done, the parking lots plowed, etc.
“what’s wrong with cutting zoning regulations”
Trashing zoning means the primarily people that will make money from housing are pump & dump builders.
Almost homeowners will gradually lose money if housing prices fall. Consider the 2008 housing collapse. One house on my street was gutted by the underwater mortgagor.
Zoning made possible the low-downpayment mortgage as zoning drastically cut the risk that property prices in an area would fall.
Renters can simply move to optimize their income to rent spread.
I lived in New York, Maryland, Virginia and Florida.
London kept most of its high-quality 19th Century housing, NYC didn’t.
I thought getting rid of illegal aliens was going to result in a housing surplus...not a shortage.
The housing “shortage” does not arrive via federal policies and greater federal intervention is a bad policy “fix”, and doubtful it will “fix” anything.
THE FIX: Ged rid of the Millions of Illegal Aliens.
I haven’t seen a single family home built in my region in years. Nothing but apartments,
High inflation with housing whether new or existing homes means counties make more with property tax, which is something that probably should be outlawed because it really makes one only a secondary owner & that’s not right. Sometimes people may even get taxed right out of their homes & that surely seems criminal to me.
I’m good with cutting zoning regulations, but that should be a local issue. And as to environmental laws, sure, some may be bad but many are good.
Most to the point, if we don’t expel 10s of millions of illegals we won’t restore the wage strength of our working class. Only mass deportations handle both housing costs and wage levels.
Get to deporting full speed!
Wild. At no point in US history do more Americans have two or more homes.
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