WASHINGTON- Donald Trump's promises on affordability in 2024 helped propel him to a second term in the White House.
Since then, Trump says, the problem has been solved: He now calls affordability a hoax perpetrated by Democrats. However, the high cost of living, especially housing, continues to weigh heavily on voters and has reduced the president's approval ratings.
In a poll conducted this month by the New York Times and the University of Siena, 58% of respondents said they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy.
How the economy performs in the coming months will play a huge role in determining whether Democrats can build on their electoral success in 2025 and take control of one or both chambers of Congress.
With housing costs so central to voters' perceptions of the economy, both parties have floated proposals in recent weeks aimed at affordability. Here's a closer look at their competing plans to expand housing and control costs:
How bad is the affordability crisis?
Nationally, wages have barely increased over the past decade: They rose 21.24% between 2014 and 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. During the same period, home rental and sales prices more than doubled, and health care and grocery costs rose 71.5% and 37.35%, respectively, according to the Federal Reserve.
The national housing price-to-income ratio is at an all-time high, with coastal states like California and Hawaii being the most extreme examples.
Housing costs in California are about twice the national average, according to the state's Legislative Analyst's Office, which said prices have risen to “historically fast rates” in recent years. The median California home sold for $877,285 in 2024, according to the California Association. of real estate agents, compared to about $420,000 nationwide, per Economic data from the Federal Reserve.
California needs to add 180,000 housing units annually to meet demand, according to the state Department of Housing. So far, California has fallen short of those goals and has only just begun to see success in reducing its homeless population, which stood at 116,000 homeless people by 2025.
What do the surveys say?
More than two-thirds of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll Last month they said they felt the economy was getting worse, and 36% expressed approval of the president, the lowest total since he began his second term.
The survey found that 47% of American adults now describe current economic conditions as “bad,” up from 40% just a month earlier and the highest number since Trump took office. Only 21% said economic conditions were “excellent” or “good,” while 31% described them as “fair.”
An Associated Press poll found that only 16% of Republicans believe Trump has helped “a lot” to solve cost-of-living problems.
What have the Democrats proposed?
The party is pushing measures to expand housing supply and reduce what they call “restrictive” single-family zoning in favor of denser development.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats plan to “supercharge” construction through bills like California Sen. Adam Schiff’s Housing BOOM Act, which he introduced in December.
Schiff said the bill would reduce prices by spurring the development of “millions of affordable homes.” The proposal would expand tax credits for low-income housing, set aside funds for rental and homelessness assistance, and provide $10 billion in housing subsidies for “middle-income” workers, such as teachers, police officers and firefighters.
The measure has not been heard in committee and faces many difficulties in the Republican-controlled body, although Schiff said inaction on the proposal could be used against his opponents.
And the Republicans?
A group of 190 House Republicans this month unveiled his successor. proposal to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the sweeping tax and spending plan approved and signed into law by Trump in July.
The Republican Study Committee described the proposal as an affordability package aimed at reducing down payments, enacting mortgage reforms and creating more tax breaks.
The group's leaders said it would reduce the budget deficit by $1 trillion and could be approved by a simple majority.
“This plan … locks in President Trump's deregulatory agenda through the only process Democrats cannot block: reconciliation,” said Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), who chairs the group. “We have 11 months of guaranteed majorities. We did not waste a single day.”
Although the proposal has not yet been introduced as legislation, Republicans said it would include a mechanism to repeal Democratic states' funding for rent control and immigration policy, which they estimated would save $48 billion.
President Trump has backed a $200 billion mortgage bond stimulus, which he said would lower mortgage rates and monthly payments. And the White House, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the two companies that back most American mortgages – continues to push the idea of portable, assumable mortgages.
Trump said the measure would allow buyers to keep their current mortgage rate or allow new homeowners to assume a previous homeowner's mortgage.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the costs of renovating the Fed, while Trump criticized him for “his endless quest to keep interest rates high.”
The president also promised to revoke federal funding to states over a range of issues including child care and immigration policy.
“This is not about any particular policy that they see as harmful,” said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Burbank). “It's about Trump always trying to find a way to punish Democratic states.”
Is there any alignment?
The two parties are cooperating on complementary measures in the House and Senate.
The bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act seeks to expand housing supply by alleviating regulatory barriers. It was passed unanimously in the Senate and has the support of the White House, but Republicans in the House of Representatives have opposed it and it has not yet received a vote on the floor.
A bipartisan proposal, the 21st Century Housing Act, passed the House Financial Services Committee by a 50-1 vote in December. It has not yet received a vote in plenary.
The bill is similar to its twin in the Senate, with Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) working across the aisle with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). If approved, it would reduce permitting timelines, support manufactured housing development and expand financing tools for low-income housing developers.
There was also a recent moment of unusual alignment between the president and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who promised to crack down on corporate home buying.
What do the experts say?
Housing experts pushed back against GOP proposals to ban housing dollars from reaching sanctuary jurisdictions and cities that impose rent control.
“Any conditioning on HUD funding that sets rules that explicitly exclude blue cities will be truly catastrophic for California's largest urban areas,” said David Garcia, deputy policy director at UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation.
More than 35 California cities have rent control policies, according to the California Apartment Assn. The state passed its own rent stabilization law in 2019, and lawmakers passed a California sanctuary law in 2017 that prohibits state resources from assisting federal immigration enforcement.
The agenda comes on the heels of a series of HUD spending cuts, including a 30% cap on investments in permanent housing and the end of a federal emergency. housing voucher program which local homeless officials estimate would leave 14,500 people on the streets.
In Los Angeles County, HUD dollars make up about 28% of homeless funding.
“It would undermine many of the bipartisan efforts underway in the House and Senate to advance evidence-backed policies to increase housing supply and stabilize rents and home prices,” Garcia said.
The president's mortgage directives also sparked skepticism from some experts.
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were pressured to get into the riskier parts of the mortgage market during the housing bubble and that was part of the problem,” said Eric McGhee, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California.
