The Housing Crisis Is No Accident—It’s the Policy

The American housing market is unraveling—and the Trump administration is lighting the match while insisting it’s holding a fire extinguisher.

Home prices just hit an all-time high of $435,300. Mortgage rates remain stuck near 7%. Sales have stalled. Inventory is rising but still below pre-pandemic norms. Buyers are spooked, sellers are stubborn, and the dream of homeownership is slipping out of reach for millions of Americans.

What’s Trump doing? Blaming Jerome Powell. Deflecting to the Fed. Meanwhile, his actual policies—tariffs on construction materials, deep HUD cuts, and deregulation of fair housing enforcement—are choking supply, inflating costs, and gutting protections for tenants and first-time buyers.

In the last 90 days, over a million homes were pulled from the market. Sellers would rather delist than lower prices. First-time buyers, now just 30% of the market, are being outbid by investors and cash buyers. And homelessness is surging. Over 770,000 people were unhoused last year—Trump’s answer? Criminalize poverty. His new executive order pushes cities to remove homeless people from public spaces and into “treatment centers,” while simultaneously slashing housing support programs.

And now, he’s floating a tax break for wealthy homeowners—eliminating capital gains taxes on home sales. It’s sold as a way to “unlock” housing supply, but in reality, it’s another giveaway for those with million-dollar equity gains while renters and working-class families are priced out.

This isn’t a plan. It’s a shell game.

Fair housing enforcement has been gutted. Nonprofits defending disabled tenants are being defunded. HUD is bleeding staff. The public systems that protected renters and rooted out discrimination are being quietly dismantled—and landlords, developers, and speculators are taking note.

The administration’s message is clear: if you’re poor, you’re on your own. If you’re wealthy, the market is yours.

We need more than rate cuts or tax tweaks. We need real investment: in affordable housing, tenant protections, stronger fair housing laws, and construction that prioritizes people over profit. Housing should be a human right—not a playground for the rich and politically connected.

Trump isn’t solving the crisis. He’s engineering it.