Free Republic

The Trump administration on Monday announced sweeping new banking rules aimed at cracking down on lending to illegal immigrants, requiring lenders to consider that borrowers without legal work authorization may pose “elevated credit risk,” a move that supporters say could improve housing affordability for Americans. The rules require banks and credit unions to account for the possibility that an illegal immigrant borrower could lose his job, be unable to find lawful work, or be removed from the country before repaying a mortgage, auto loan, credit-card balance, or other debt. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit...

This bill slashes barriers to building homes, modernizes outdated Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, bolsters community banks, and stops big institutional investors from crowding out American families. It is unapologetic America First policy that proves Republicans can deliver results even when Congress moves slower than molasses. ... It even halts any Federal Reserve central bank digital currency until 2030.

A landmark housing bill automatically became law at 12 a.m. on Saturday after President Trump declined to sign it in protest of the Senate's inaction on an elections bill known as the SAVE America Act. The bipartisan bill, known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, is the most comprehensive housing legislation in decades. The measure aims to increase housing supply and bring down costs, including by limiting institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes. The president had been set to sign the legislation at a Capitol Hill bill signing ceremony last month, shortly after the House and Senate...

After several years of a lean and pricey housing market, real estate agents are starting to see more balance. In the second quarter of the year, 44% of real estate agents surveyed in CNBC’s Housing Market Survey said they were seeing a balanced market between buyer and seller. That share is up from 30% in the third quarter of last year, when CNBC began its quarterly survey. “It certainly feels like, depending on the home, depending on the neighborhood, depending on the condition and the price point, that both the buyer and the seller do have a little bit of...

A new Federal Reserve working paper found the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration triggered higher home prices and rents. The findings arrive as immigration remains a polarizing political issue. Republicans argue former President Joe Biden’s border policies strained housing and public resources, while Democrats say immigration helped ease labor shortages and supported economic growth. The paper, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, combines immigration court records with government administrative data to measure how the unprecedented wave of illegal immigration between 2021 and 2024 affected local labor and housing markets.

A new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper estimates the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration boosted employment while driving up home prices by as much as 30% and rent by 20%. The paper combined immigration court records with government administrative data to create the first ever calculation of how a wave of 7 million illegal immigrants from 2021 through 2024 affected local labor and housing markets. "From early 2021 to early 2024, the U.S. experienced an unprecedented boom in unauthorized immigration, followed by a rapid slowdown beginning in mid-2024. We provide the first systematic empirical...

The Democratic Socialists of America LA chapter has released a 40-page, 9,000-word manifesto that lays out an aggressive, six-to-eight-year plan to seize control of the nation’s second-largest city and impose full-blown socialism In what can only be described as a chilling blueprint for economic destruction and social chaos (see below), the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter has released a 40-page, 9,000-word manifesto that lays out an aggressive, six-to-eight-year plan to seize control of the nation’s second-largest city and impose full-blown socialism. This radical document, published in 2025, doesn’t mince words: Los Angeles is “on the burning edge...

The bar for entry-level homeownership has never been higher. While the typical starter home nationwide is worth $198,649, a record 242 cities now have starter homes valued at $1 million or more, A record 242 US cities now have starter homes that cost $1 million, according to Zillow A typical “starter home” is defined for this analysis as a home in the lowest third of home values in a given region. The count of cities with million-dollar starter homes has grown from 226 cities a year ago, even as affordability pressures have begun to ease in parts of the country....

The Trump administration is looking to reduce housing costs by removing Biden-era green energy mandates. The International Energy Conservation Code was revised in 2021 to increase building energy efficiency mandates as part of former President Joe Biden's overall climate policy. However, the regulations drove up the cost of building homes and exacerbated the housing shortage, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner told The Midwesterner. A failure to comply with the standards results in a denial of federal funding for new construction. The cost of compliance, Turner said, adds $31,000 to the cost of a home, and the Trump...

Squatters are taking over homes across the country and Flash Shelton is the man who gets them out. With bold tactics and street smarts, Flash and his team face tense and sometimes dangerous situations to help families reclaim their property. Each episode reveals the emotional and high-stakes battles where the fight for justice can quickly escalate, putting everyone involved at risk. This is the struggle to take back what rightfully belongs to them.

BREAKING: Minnesota residents Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf ARRESTED for $21 million Medicaid fraud scheme

In 1974, New York Times humorist Russell Baker identified a “pig in the python” working its way through the economy: the bulge of 76 million Baby Boomers squeezing through America’s economic system, distorting everything they passed through. When Boomers flooded the labor market in the 1970s, they created a competitive squeeze that never fully released — leaving the generations behind them without the wage rebound economists had predicted. When they bought homes, prices soared. When they took the top jobs in business, culture, and civic life, they held them — and held them, and held them. For half a century,...

Mortgage rates continued to move higher in the past week as geopolitical turmoil caused the 10-year Treasury yield to soar, although mortgage spreads remain well below their levels of 2024 and 2025. At HousingWire‘s Mortgage Rates Center, rates for 30-year conforming loans were at 6.77%, their highest point of the year. Rates for 30-year loans through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) averaged 6.33% and rates for 30-year jumbo loans averaged 6.89%. HousingWire Data is benchmarked across a base of retail lenders using a standardized borrower scenario with a 75% loan-to-value ratio and a 780 FICO score. Last week, loan officers...

FHA loans to non-permanent residents quickly grew to represent 6% of mortgage issuances. The percentage was undoubtedly higher in places like the DFW area, where H-1B visa holders are disproportionately concentrated. I don’t have anything against people in America on H-1B visas. I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again—that I’ve found many of them to be great people on an individual level, and I wish them all nothing but the best. Individual immigrants—especially those here legally—are not at fault for flawed US immigration policy. But this might be the most radicalizing thing I’ve ever seen. Not only are American...

For generations, Americans viewed homes as more than assets. They were the physical foundation of family stability, equity-building, and civic continuity — the bedrock of a middle-class society rooted in dispersed private ownership. Owning a home was analogous to owning a piece of the American Dream itself: a symbol of citizen sovereignty and national agency. That understanding is fading. Recently, while selling a property, I encountered a buyer who presented himself as a flipper. The contract revealed something else: minimal earnest money, aggressive escape clauses, cash-only terms, and assignment language that treated the deal more like a tradable derivative than...

California used to be a place where you could get ahead. Work hard, save up, buy your first home, and build a life. That path is disappearing. A generation ago, buying your first home was something many Californians could imagine doing in their 20s. Today, the median first-time homebuyer is 40. Today, first-time buyers are being shut out of the market entirely. The homes that do get built are too big, too expensive, and completely out of reach for young, middle-class families. Starter homes, the foundation of a healthy housing market, have almost vanished. That’s not just a housing issue....

The American dream is dying, according to the Times. To mark the US’s 250th anniversary, the paper commissioned YouGov to explore whether the country’s citizens still believe that if you ‘work hard and play by the rules’ you will eventually be successful. Turns out, only 38 per cent of the respondents think this applies to all Americans, while 59 per cent think the American dream is now less attainable than it was when they were growing up. In addition, 38 per cent rated today’s quality of life as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, compared with 60 per cent who said the same...

This year, so far, has been a robust one for Manhattan’s trophy-home market. Since the beginning of the year, 126 contracts have been signed for homes priced at $10 million and above, according to Olshan Realty’s Monday report. That’s well ahead of last year’s 90 trophy deals that were logged during the same period, and even ahead of the 117 that were signed in the same time frame in 2021, a record-breaking year for Manhattan’s luxury-home market that included 400 trophy-home contracts.

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...

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. The analysis, part of the Economic Report of the President, outlines both a political risk and a messaging opportunity for President Donald Trump, whose public approval has slumped because of concerns about his tariffs, the Iran war and his unfulfilled promises to slash inflation and unleash stronger growth. Trump signed two executive orders in March directing federal agencies...