10
Loading video...
By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 promising to tackle America’s housing affordability crisis, arguing that deregulation, new home construction and mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would help expand housing supply and lower costs.
Almost exactly one year ago, Trump told Americans that he would expand homeownership to millions more families during his second administration, allowing them to step onto the property ladder despite the challenges of still-climbing home prices, stubbornly high mortgage rates and rising homeowners insurance premiums and property taxes.
“I’ve been a builder all my life. I build things. I was a real estate developer. I know what it is,” Trump said in video remarks to a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) event on the National Mall on September 8, 2025. “Together, we can put millions more American families in a home of their very own.”
Read More on News
Twelve months later, and nearly two years into Trump’s second term, the results are mixed. The administration has acted on several parts of its housing agenda, particularly deregulation, immigration enforcement and restrictions on institutional investors. However, those measures have yet to translate into a substantial increase in homebuilding.
...
Although the number of homes on the market is modestly higher than when Trump took office, much of that inventory growth appears to have come from weaker demand and properties taking longer to sell, rather than a surge in newly built homes. Single-family housing starts have recently fallen to their lowest level in more than three years.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email on Wednesday.
Related Story
Trump Promised Lower Mortgage Rates. Here’s What Happened Instead
How Many Homes Were on the Market When Trump Took Office?
When Trump returned to the Oval Office, the housing market was still grappling with years of underbuilding that contributed to the current shortage in the country, estimated between 2.8 million and 10 million units.
Inventory had begun recovering from COVID-19 pandemic-era lows, especially in states like Florida and Texas that led a boom in new construction, but remained below pre-pandemic norms in many parts of the country.
According to Redfin, there were 1,400,188 active listings of homes for sale nationwide in January 2025. By December, that figure had risen modestly to 1,473,056.
New listings moved in the opposite direction. A total of 383,208 homes were newly listed in January, compared with 376,281 in December.
Construction data also showed little momentum. In January 2025, the Census Bureau reported seasonally adjusted annual rates of 1.5 million building permits, 1.4 million housing starts and 1.6 million housing completions. Single-family housing starts, which account for the largest share of homebuilding in the country, fell 8.4 percent from the previous month, at a rate of 993,000.
By the end of the year, those numbers were largely unchanged. The bureau reported annual rates of 1.5 million permits, 1.4 million starts and 1.5 million completions. Single-family starts, at a rate of 981,000, were 4.1 percent higher than the previous month, but there was little sign of the sustained construction boom Trump had promised.
Has Housing Inventory Improved Since Trump’s Return to the White House?
The number of homes available for sale improved modestly during Trump’s first year back in office. However, inventory and new housing supply are not quite the same thing.
Inventory can increase because more owners list their properties, but it can also rise because homes take longer to sell. This has been the case in the weakened U.S. market, where high mortgage rates and still-rising prices have kept would-be buyers on the sidelines, causing listings to accumulate even without more homes being built.
Since Trump took office again, elevated mortgage rates have discouraged some buyers, while home-price growth has cooled in a number of markets, particularly in the South, amid an inventory glut. Properties have also remained on the market for longer. Together, those conditions have allowed listings to accumulate in parts of the South and West, while the shortage remains acute in the Northeast and Midwest.
The latest figures, however, suggest that even this partial, regionally divided inventory recovery may be losing momentum. As of July, there were 1,462,921 homes for sale nationwide, down 0.65 percent from a year earlier, according to Redfin.
Construction data brings more potentially bad news to American homebuyers. In July, building permits were running at an annual rate of 1.5 million, while housing starts and completions were both at 1.2 million, according to the Census Bureau’s latest report.
Single-family housing starts fell 9.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 808,000 units, their lowest level in more than 3 1/2 years and the weakest reading since November 2022. Total housing starts, including multifamily properties such as apartment buildings, fell 12.4 percent to an annual rate of 1.239 million.
Why Aren’t Builders Building More?
Declines in construction reflect the paradox faced by homebuilders in the current market, with a significant housing shortage still plaguing the nation at the same time as a growing stock of unsold homes is piling up on the market, forcing them to lower prices and cut profits.
“Builders continue to face significant challenges from elevated construction costs and affordability pressures,” National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Chairman Bill Owens, a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio, said in a statement.
...
“Higher mortgage rates are keeping many prospective buyers on the sidelines, while rising material, gas and diesel costs are adding to the cost of construction. These challenges are making it increasingly difficult for builders to deliver homes at prices that buyers can afford.”
The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released last month, found that builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes has inched up one point to 35 in August, though it remained “muted” due to economic and geopolitical uncertainty and high mortgage rates.
Those figures complicate any claim that the administration has already delivered a meaningful expansion in housing supply. More existing homes may have become available in some markets, but the pace at which the country is adding new single-family homes has weakened.
Deregulation could lower some development costs over the longer term, but it cannot fully offset expensive financing, weak buyer demand, labor constraints and higher material costs.
What Can Americans Expect Next?
Mortgage rates continue to dominate the housing debate, but supply remains one of the most important long-term drivers of affordability. A larger stock of homes can give buyers greater choice and reduce upward pressure on prices, even when borrowing costs remain elevated.
Homebuilders have welcomed some of the administration’s deregulatory measures. However, they continue to face financing, labor and construction-cost pressures that could limit production. Weak affordability among buyers may also discourage builders from starting projects they are uncertain they can sell profitably.
Inventory may continue to improve in parts of the South and West, where homes are generally taking longer to sell. But a rise in unsold listings caused by weaker demand would not, on its own, resolve the country’s structural housing shortage.
The central test was always whether Americans would gain access to more homes. Nearly two years into Trump’s second term, existing inventory is modestly higher than when he took office, but new construction remains subdued and the affordability crisis that shaped the 2024 election continues to weigh on prospective buyers.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Dave Siminoff.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines