Why housing costs are high (short list)

• Chronic supply shortage vs. household formation: builders haven’t delivered enough housing (especially affordable units) for years; demand outpaced supply after the pandemic. (Eye On Housing)
• Restrictive land-use and zoning (single-family minimums, height limits, parking requirements, etc.) block denser, cheaper housing near jobs. Local rules are a large drag on supply. (Brookings)
• High construction costs & labor shortages — materials, labor and low productivity in homebuilding make new units expensive. (Goldman Sachs)
• Higher financing costs and investor activity: mortgage rate spikes and investor/cash buyers can push prices and reduce owner-occupant access. (Median sale prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels.) (AP News)
• Insufficient federal subsidy/production for low-income housing and fragmented programs that rely heavily on local rules and tax credits — result: not enough deeply affordable homes. (Urban Institute)

What a federal government could ACTUALLY do:
concrete, implementable steps

(These are federal levers with precedent and/or strong policy research behind them.)

1. Tie federal infrastructure / transportation /school funding to local zoning reform.
   • Federal grants could require jurisdictions that receive large infrastructure funds to remove exclusionary zoning, allow 3–6-story housing near transit, and eliminate minimum-lot/parking rules. This uses federal fiscal leverage to unlock supply. (Brookings/Urban Institute recommend similar incentives.) (Brookings)
2. Massive expansion of direct federal production + long-term capital for deeply affordable housing.
   • Scale up HUD-led construction of public housing, preserve existing affordable stock, and create a federal infrastructure bank / low-cost long-term loan facility to finance mixed-income developments. Direct production prevents relying solely on the slow private tax-credit pipeline. (Urban Institute)
3. Reform and enlarge subsidies so they reach the lowest-income households.
   • Expand and simplify Housing Choice Vouchers, increase fair-market rent coverage, and reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) so credits finance more units and reduce complexity that delays projects. This immediately reduces homelessness and housing instability. (HUD User)
4. National land-banking and use of federal land for housing.
   • The federal government can transfer underused federal land to cities/states for affordable housing at low/no cost (or on long leases), cutting land cost barriers—especially in high-cost metros. Brookings and other experts push for federal tools to overcome local land scarcity. (Brookings)
5. Streamline permitting + invest in modern construction (modular/manufactured) + workforce training.
   • Federal grants to modernize permitting systems, accelerate approvals, and fund factory-built housing plus construction apprenticeships would cut time and cost per unit. Goldman Sachs and industry analyses flag productivity and labor shortages as big constraints. (Goldman Sachs)
6. Tackle investor/speculator distortions and vacancy/short-term rental excesses.
   • Implement federal tax treatment or disclosure rules to reduce predatory bulk buying of starter homes and support policies like vacancy taxes or limits where investor buying damages local affordability. (Many local experiments exist; federal coordination would scale them.) (Investopedia)
7. Prevent displacement + strengthen tenant protections while building supply.
   • Federally funded relocation assistance, anti-displacement measures, and stronger eviction prevention are cheap ways to avoid homelessness as neighborhoods change. Combine protections with supply incentives so reforms don’t stall local political support. (Urban Institute)

Why this package works together

• Supply actions (zoning reform, permits, modular construction, land banking) lower the cost of producing homes.
• Federal finance and direct production fill the gap for deeply affordable units that private markets won’t produce.
• Vouchers, tenant protections, and short-term fixes prevent displacement and homelessness while new units are built.
• Using federal grant leverage over state/local choices is politically realistic and fast compared with trying to change millions of local rules one-by-one. (Brookings)

Where we stand

• Median sales price of U.S. houses is very high, recently around ~$410k (2024–mid-2025 quarterly series). Affordability is progressively worse vs. past decades. (FRED). Nobody can afford a fucking house!
• Average U.S. rents ($1,700–$2,000 regionally); high coastal rents exceed $2,500+. Federal Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are used to size voucher needs. And they don't cut it. (RentCafe)

One-paragraph, go-to policy platform

"Fix housing by building it: tie federal infrastructure dollars to ending exclusionary zoning, scale federal financing and direct construction of mixed-income and public housing, reform tax credits and vouchers so they produce and protect deeply affordable homes, and slash permitting time while investing in modular construction and the construction workforce. Do those things together and we can make housing affordable again... and make America actually great again... by guaranteeing a stable home for every family." (Brookings)

lets actually make America great.