Instead Trump argued for protecting existing homeowners who are seeing their home values ​​rise. It’s a position that flies in the face of what many economists, the real estate industry, local officials and apartment dwellers say is necessary to repair a large portion of America’s affordability problem.

“I don’t want to lower housing prices. I want to raise housing prices for people who own their homes, and they can be confident that that will happen,” Trump said in his Cabinet on January 29.

That approach could strengthen the Republican president’s standing with older voters, a group that over time is more likely to vote. midterm elections. Those races in November will determine whether Trump’s party can retain control of the House and Senate.

“You’ve had a lot of people get rich in the last year because their home values ​​have gone up,” Trump said. “And you know, when you get housing — when you make it so easy and affordable to buy homes — those values ​​go down.”

But by catering to older baby boomers in housing, Trump risks alienating the young voters who expanded his coalition in 2024 and helped him win a second term, and he could slide into a “generational war” in the midterms, said Brent Buchanan, whose polling firm Cygnal advises Republicans.

“The under-40 group is the most important right now — they’re the ones who put Trump in the White House,” Buchanan said. “Their desire to show up in an election or not will make the difference in this election. If they feel that Donald Trump is catering to boomers at their expense, that will hurt Republicans.”

The logic of appealing to older voters

In the 2024 presidential election, 81% of Trump voters are homeowners, according to AP VoteCast data. This means that many of his supporters already have mortgages with low rates or already own their homes, possibly underestimating the importance of housing as an issue.

Older voters tend to show up to vote more than younger ones, said Oscar Pocasangre, a senior data analyst at the liberal think tank New America who studies the age divide in US politics. “However, appealing to older voters may prove to be a flawed policy when what is needed to win is to expand the voting base,” Pocasangre said.

Before the 2026 elections, voters consistently rate affordability as a primary concern, and that is especially true for young voters regarding housing.

Booker Lightman, 30, a software engineer in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who identifies politically as a libertarian Republican, said the lack of housing is a major problem in his state.

Lightman just closed on a home last month, and while he and his wife, Alice, were able to manage the cost, he said the lack of construction is pushing people out of Colorado. “There’s just not enough housing,” he said.

Shay Hata, a real estate agent in the Chicago and Denver areas, said he handles about 100 to 150 transactions a year. But he sees the potential for more. “We have a lack of inventory to the point where most properties, especially in the suburbs, are getting between five and 20 offers,” he said, describing what he’s seen in the Chicago area.

New construction will help more people buy homes because in some cases, buyers qualify for discounted mortgage rates from preferred lenders to builders, Hata said. He called the current situation “very discouraging for buyers because they are being priced out of the market.”

But pending construction fell under Trump. Permits to build single-family homes fell 9.4% over the past 12 months in October, the most recent month available, to an annual rate of 876,000, according to US Census Bureau.

Trump’s other ideas to help people buy homes

Trump has not always been against increasing the housing supply.

During the 2024 campaignTrump’s team said he would create tax breaks for homebuyers, cut construction regulations, open up federal land for housing developments and make monthly payments more manageable by cutting mortgage payments. Advisors also claim that the housing stock will open due to Trump’s push for mass deportations of people who are in the United States illegally.

Last October, Trump urged builders to ramp up construction. “They are sitting on 2 Million vacant lots, A RECORD. I asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep Big Homebuilders going and, by doing so, help restore the American Dream!” Trump posted on social media, targeting government-backed lenders.

But recently, there is no doubt that he does not want to continue with policies that increase supply and lower prices.

In office, Trump focused on himself housing policy to lobby the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate. He believes it could make the mortgages cheaper, though critics say it could fuel higher inflation. Trump announced that the two mortgage companies, which are under government conservatorship, will buy at least $200 billion in home loan securities in a bid to reduce rates.

Trump also wants Congress prohibiting large financial institutions from buying homes. But he rejected proposals for expanding the rules to allow buyers to use 401(k) retirement accounts for down payments, telling reporters he doesn’t want people to take their money out of the stock market because it’s doing so well.

There are signs that lawmakers in both parties see the benefit of taking steps to increase housing ahead of this year’s election. There are efforts in the Senate and House to start construction by using incentives to change zoning restrictions, and other policies.

One of the underlying challenges to affordability is that home prices often rise faster than incomes over many years.

This makes it difficult to save for down payments or upgrade to a nicer home. It also means that the places people live are increasingly doubling as their key financial asset, one that leaves many families scrambling to make money on paper even as they struggle to make monthly payments.

There is another risk for Trump. If the economy grows this year, as he has promised, that could push up demand for homes — as well as their prices — making the affordability problem more apparent, said Edward Pinto, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.

Pinto said construction of single-family homes would need to increase 50% to 100% over the next three years for average home price increases to be flat — a sign, he said, that Trump’s fears about declining home prices may be unwarranted.

“It’s very difficult to crater home prices,” Pinto said.