Biden targets surging home prices with new plan

The Biden administration on Monday announced plans to tackle soaring home prices by increasing supply and providing financial assistance. President Joe Biden’s latest proposal would provide more rental and down-payment assistance, in addition to building and preserving hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units in the next three years.  

Getting a hold of rising costs is a major focus for the White House. Median home prices jumped by a record 15 percent in March, compared to the year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. Meanwhile, rent rose 16 percent year over year in April, according to ApartmentList.com.

“The best thing we can do to ease the burden of housing cost is to boost the supply of quality housing, including building more new homes and preserving existing federal support and market rate affordable housing,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. 

The president’s plan would provide special financing options for manufactured homes, accessory dwelling units, and multi-unit properties and buildings. It also calls for government-owned housing to go to owners to use as their own residence, or non-profits to refurbish, rather than investors who would flip the properties for a profit.

“With rising mortgage rates and a persistent shortage of affordable homes, the dream of homeownership is limited for many middle-income, first-time, and first-generation homebuyers,” National Association of Realtors President Leslie Rouda Smith said in a statement. “Urgent action is needed to tackle our nation’s housing supply crisis. NAR welcomes the administration’s work on this effort and encourages policymakers to look at comprehensive action.” 

Smith pointed to a research report the association commissioned last year that showed the U.S. is short 5.5 million homes, and it could take more than a decade to meet demand. 

Housing price challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as access to low-rate mortgages and supply chain issues have affected the ability to build new homes. Builders are also feeling inflationary pressure on material costs, which the proposal hopes to alleviate. Those issues are being compounded by the recent increase in home mortgage rates, which just topped 5 percent. 

“The plan contains many positive elements that would help address a host of affordability challenges and improve financing options, and acknowledges the long-term headwinds, like supply chain bottlenecks and chronic construction labor shortages, repeatedly identified by NAHB members as holding back housing production,” National Association of Home Builders Chairman Jerry Konter said in a statement.