Trump provides solution to housing crisis
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EJ Antoni | January 09, 2026
**President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 7 plans to ban
institutional investors from buying up homes and renting them
back to Americans.
*You’ll Own Something and Be Happy
Corporate landlord Blackstone’s stock plunged nearly 5% on
the move to make housing more affordable.
Trump’s goal is to lower house prices and prevent Wall Street
outbidding the rest of us with their unfair access to cheap capital.
And it’s something a lot of Americans have wanted, from the MAGA
base to Bernie Bros.
Home ownership has long been a bipartisan goal, as it promotes
family formation, promotes community involvement, and lets people
build a nest egg.
A recent study found the average net worth of an American home-
owner is close to $400,000. The average net worth of an American
renter is $10,000. Ten grand makes for a thin retirement.
The problem, of course, is Americans can no longer afford
houses that skyrocketed in price to almost 40% under Biden. Toss in
Federal Reserve rate hikes that doubled mortgage rates and, accord-
ing to Bankrate, the median monthly mortgage payment, which doubled
from $1,242 a month in 2019 to $2,207 in 2024.
This then bled to rents—landlords have mortgages too.
Meanwhile, wages for twentysomethings—who should be starting a
family—actually went down under Biden. And have only made back part
of the lost ground.
This put institutional buyers in the spotlight, who have spent
decades quietly hoovering up millions of homes to rent. The buying
accelerated dramatically during COVID’s low rates—at one point in
2022 institutions were buying one in four single family homes.
Banning institutional banners will lower prices. But not by
much considering they make up just a couple percent of home
purchases. So going by price elasticities you might get a 3-5% drop
in home prices—possibly closer to 10% in sunbelt cities where
institutions are most active.
But this comes with a roughly equivalent 3-5% rise in rents if
Blackstone drops the rental business, where price elasticities are
similar.
So, slightly cheaper houses, and slightly higher rent. Both
nudge people into owning. At the expense of people with poor credit
or no down payment who will pay more rent.
Moreover, we’re talking 3-5% when houses went up 40% and
housing costs doubled.
*Buyers need a lot more.
Since he took office in January 2025, Trump’s been trying
everything. He’s tried to cut closing costs, promoted simplified
local building codes, removed tariffs on construction materials,
proposed opening federal land to housing. Additionally, just this
week, he deployed $200 billion from government-controlled mortgage
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower mortgage rates.
In the Big Beautiful Bill, he added tax relief for builders,
which is already helping multi-family construction. He even floated
50-year mortgages, which lower payments at the cost of paying your
mortgage when you’re 92. And, of course deportations, which have
opened over a million houses and are finally lowering rent prices,
especially in deportation-heavy cities like Austin.
What’s missing is the two biggest drivers of house prices:
inflation, which is driven by federal deficits. And mass deregula-
tion in home-building, including environmental mandates, zoning,
and rent control the National Association of Homebuilders estimates
can add $94,000 to the cost of a home.
For these, he needs Congress. Along with local governments
like New York or San Francisco, where rent control has led to over
a hundred thousand empty units despite citywide shortages and
nosebleed rents that delivered New York to Comrade Mamdani.
Affordability and inflation have been the top voter concern
all year, and prediction markets currently have 77% odds the GOP
loses the House in the midterms.
Given Congress won’t meaningfully cut inflationary spending
or regulation in areas like healthcare and insurance, housing costs
are the last man standing.
Trump’s doing what he can, but Congress has to do the heavy
lifting if they want to keep their seats.**
We have a good chance today of keeping control of Congress but
I keep thinking how bad things would be now if Trump was not at
the wheel keeping us out of the ditches and trying to catch up.
Faith and prayer and a relationship with God is our best anchor.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 