Housing Is Driving Voter Anxiety
It has been two years since Donald Trump's second-term win, and voters are heading into midterms that many see as a check on his record. After years of surging prices, housing is a big piece of that cost burden.
A Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month reported that 66 percent of U.S. adults are very worried about housing costs. Among Democrats and those who lean Democratic, 76 percent said they were very concerned, compared with 53 percent among Republicans and Republican-leaning adults. In a separate Hometap survey conducted this month, 77 percent of 1,000 U.S. homeowners said a candidate's platform to reduce homeownership costs would affect how they vote.
What Experts See In The Market
"The U.S. housing market is in hibernation," Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, told Newsweek. He said sales have been stuck near decades-low levels for several years, which "leaves the American voter frustrated, and I expect that frustration will guide them."
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Berner pointed to two pressures building. "We've had several years of decades-low sales figures, which means two things. One, something has to change, and mortgage rates would likely have the most immediate impact," he said. "Two, there is pent-up demand. Lots of would-be buyers who would've bought since 2023 are waiting to get into the game."
"Housing isn't really a dividing line in this election. What we're seeing instead is that it's part of a much broader frustration about the cost of living," said Pete Carroll, who serves as executive vice president for Public Policy and Industry Relations at Cotality, a real-estate data-and-analytics platform. "Voters are concerned about price inflation and the economy, and housing affordability is a big part of that."
What It Means For Your Portfolio
If affordability is front and center for voters, candidates will keep talking about it. Expect more focus on the levers Berner flagged, like mortgage rates and sidelined demand from buyers who waited since 2023.
The bottom line: two-thirds of adults report being very concerned about housing costs, and 77 percent of homeowners say proposals to lower ownership costs influence their vote. That keeps housing squarely in the broader cost-of-living debate Carroll described, which is the bridge from real estate to the rest of the economy - and to policy signals that markets watch.
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