The price of gasoline and groceries often are cited as stress points in the U.S. economy. The high cost of housing is an even bigger one, and tends to be more of a longer-term problem.
The shortage of affordable housing is a nationwide concern, but nowhere more so than in California and San Diego.
An economist recently said the United States currently has its “most unaffordable housing market in history” because of the upward pressure on home prices and an inventory that remains low, according to Phillip Molnar of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
San Diego has the fastest-rising home prices in the nation after New York.
So when Vice President Kamala Harris recently unveiled new housing plans as part of her economic agenda, that had particular resonance in the Democratic presidential nominee’s home state of California.
Former President Donald Trump hasn’t been as vocal about housing in this campaign, though he has made proposals in the past and the current Republican Party platform he authorized has a plank on “Housing Affordability.”
There are some general areas of agreement between the candidates, such as providing potential homebuyers with assistance, increasing supply, opening up some federal lands for housing development and the time-honored commitment to cut red tape. However, there are vast differences in how they approach these and other areas.
Nevertheless, perhaps because both agree that more homes are needed, housing has not turned into a high-decibel partisan point of contention like so many other issues.
How much can be done at the federal level is open to debate. Washington can shovel money and incentives toward housing, but land use and zoning decisions historically have been the responsibility of local governments and they fight to keep it.
Further, the housing affordability crisis has been more than 15 years in the making – since the 2008 housing crash – and won’t likely be turned around quickly.
In California, the state government increasingly has become aggressive in ing laws and taking other action against local jurisdictions reluctant to provide more housing. That includes state Attorney General Rob Bonta filing and threatening lawsuits. It’s been a tough slog and it’s hard to imagine federal prosecutors taking on local governments over this.
Harris created a big buzz, certainly on the West Coast, by proposing to do away with restrictive zoning. That has been the key battle in California, with Sacramento essentially doing away with single-family-home zoning across the state and increasingly usurping local control over land use.
One of former President Barack Obama’s notable applause lines during his Democratic National Convention speech was when he said Harris would “clear away some of the outdated laws and regulations that made it harder to build homes for working people in this country.”
Trump, who made his fortune as a developer, seemed to be against that, before he recently hinted he was for it.
“A relentless push for more high-density housing in single-family residential neighborhoods has become the mainstream goal of the left,” wrote Trump and his then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson in an August 2020 Wall Street Journal op-ed.
They promised to “save our suburbs.”
In a June interview with Bloomberg, Trump blamed much of the cost of housing on “all of those restrictions.”
“Zoning is like…it’s a killer,” he added.
Trump’s GOP platform says the country must “cut unnecessary regulations that raise housing costs.”
Project 2025, a detailed plan for a second Trump term drafted by many of his former istration officials, also calls for fewer land use restrictions, but suggests that authority should still reside with local government, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, which includes several controversial proposals Democrats are highlighting.
Harris wants to expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and give $25,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers. The latter is perhaps the most contentious part of her proposal, as some critics contend that could increase competition among homebuyers and actually inflate costs in a tight market.
The Republican platform says the GOP will reduce mortgage rates by slashing inflation and promote homeownership through tax incentives — but does not advocate direct cash assistance.
Inflation has been shrinking and in recent months mortgage rates already have started to drop. That’s expected to continue as the Fed signaled a coming reduction in interest rates.
The Republican platform said deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, as Trump plans to do, will increase housing availability and reduce costs. Even if Trump is able to conduct mass deportations, which is questionable, it’s not clear whether that would have much impact on overall housing availability or prices.
Harris pledged various ways to help struggling renters, including cracking down on corporate landlords and rent-fixing schemes.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice sued RealPage, accusing the real estate software company of helping landlords collude to raise rents.
The GOP platform says nothing about renters.
Overall, Harris has fleshed out more of a housing plan than Trump, though both candidates lack some details on how they would achieve their proposals.
But campaign pledges often are aspirational messages about what candidates think is important, or, less charitably, cynical attempts to win votes.
Regardless, political promises don’t always pan out. Harris said she will spur construction of 3 million new homes during her first four-year term. The president can’t do that alone.
Neither can governors. In running for governor in 2017, Gavin Newsom promised he would increase the number of homes in California by 3.5 million by 2025.
According to the state Department of Finance, a total of 589,626 homes had been added by the beginning of this year.
What they said
PolitiFact (@PolitiFact).
“Former President Donald Trump said his 2024 presidential race opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, wants to force medical professionals to provide ‘chemical castration drugs to young children.’ We rated that False.”
