The 2024 presidential election is now close enough to count down the time in weeks, not months. As the campaigns heat up ahead of the Nov. 5 election, both the Democratic and Republican parties are hitting the campaign trails to share their messages with the American people.
Both candidates have highlighted their housing-related positions and policies in their overall party platforms. Here’s a look at each side’s housing priorities.
The 2024 Republican Party platform pins high housing costs largely on inflation and high numbers of illegal immigration. According to the platform document, “The Republican Party will reverse the worst Inflation crisis in four decades that has crushed the middle class, devastated family budgets, and pushed the dream of homeownership out of reach for millions. We will defeat Inflation, tackle the cost-of-living crisis, improve fiscal sanity, restore price stability, and quickly bring down prices.”
The document also claims that, if elected, Republican politicians will “end luxury housing and taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants and use those savings to shelter and treat homeless veterans.”
A recent study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University, found that immigration can be a boost to the housing market in areas where immigrants settle, causing a population increase and in turn an increase in demand for housing.
The housing section of the Republican platform also includes general aims to reduce mortgage rates, increase support for homeownership and first-time buyers through tax incentives and reduce regulations that lead to increased housing costs. The most specific policy that stands out is a plan to open “limited portions” of federal lands up to developers, thereby increasing the available land on which to build new housing stock.
Looking back on the Trump administration’s housing-related programs from 2017 to 2021, one of its biggest priorities was in 2018 signing the first big bank deregulation bill since the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted in 2010 following the financial crisis. Lenders were the winners in the bill, as they had been fighting the regulations put in after the crisis. The bill was not without controversy, however, with provisions in the legislation that prevented smaller lenders from mortgage disclosure requirements intended to help fight discrimination, according to a Politico article listing Trump’s accomplishments in office.
Also together with then-HUD secretary Ben Carson, Trump issued an executive order rolling back housing regulations to support affordable housing. Also not without controversy, critics cited the order as removing barriers that contributed to racial segregation in housing. The Trump administration believed the main barrier to homeownership is affordability rather than racial discrimination.
As for the private sector, the Trump administration designated certain areas as “opportunity zones,” or economically distressed communities where investors can get tax benefits for building in. Since their implementation in 2017, opportunity zones have seen home price gains.
Looking ahead, one of the Trump 2024 campaign’s key economic plans is to overturn the federal income tax altogether and use tariffs as substitute revenue collection. Critics have said this would raise costs for most Americans (since vendors would offset increased taxes on imported goods onto consumers) and could further stratify the American income gap.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has a limited legislative track record (having only entered elected office in January 2023). That said, Vance has claimed that both immigration and corporate landlords are to blame for rising unaffordability in the single-family home market. He previously wrote in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that “declining home values trap people in certain neighborhoods. Even if you’d like to move, you can’t, because the bottom has fallen out of the market—you now owe more than any buyer is willing to pay.”
On the other side of the fence:
At a speech in North Carolina on Friday, Aug. 16, Vice President Kamala Harris said she intends to create an “opportunity economy” and bring down the cost of living. About midway through the half-hour speech, she turned her focus to her housing plans.
Harris began by describing her record on housing while serving as attorney general of California. She specifically mentioned her role in drafting the California Homeowners Bill of Rights (a collection of laws designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure) and winning an $18 billion settlement agreement against home loan lenders accused of anti-consumer misconduct.
Looking to the future, Harris stressed housing as a key area to be renovated for the aforementioned opportunity. “Homeownership (is) the symbol of the pride that comes with hard work (and is) out of reach for far too many American families,” she said. Harris echoed industry complaints and the consensus among economists that housing prices are too high because inventory is too low and, in turn, because it is too difficult to build new housing stock. She promised that her administration will “work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need to both rent and buy,” encourage the reduction of state and local barriers to building and promised that 3 million new units will be built by the end of her first term.
Harris also outlined direct buyer/renter assistance programs, such as a law that would crack down on corporate landlords. Harris claimed that certain investors collude to raise prices, or use pricing algorithms to do so, while buying up so many rental units as to build a monopoly. Harris’ comments are part of a trend of legislators proposing limits on corporate ownership in the housing and rental markets.
The most specific housing policy Harris cited in her speech was a $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. This policy is one of the planks of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform, alongside a $10,000 mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers.
Other listed policies, in line with Harris’ stated aims, include a crackdown on “junk fees” from lenders, mandating that corporate landlords cap rent increases at 5% or be penalized with the loss of certain tax breaks (a policy first introduced by Biden in July 2024), reducing the racial wealth gap by reducing fair housing rule violations and the creation of a “Housing Innovation Fund” to help local governments increase supply and reduce barriers.
The full platform, available here, lists housing as a subhead of its third chapter, “Lowering Costs.” (The text mistakenly refers to Joe Biden as “the president” in present and future tense.)
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also has a noted track record on housing policy. In May 2023, he signed a $1 billion housing investment bill described as the largest of its kind in Minnesota state history. The legislative package included funds for, among other programs, down payment assistance and infrastructure investments. It remains to be seen how active a role Walz could play in a hypothetical Harris administration, but this suggests the Democratic running mates are on the same page when it comes to housing.
Follow RISMedia for continuing updates on housing policy.
