The last in a series of public consultation surveys conducted during the run-up to November’s election found that most Americans, regardless of political party, favor federal government policies that would make housing more affordable. That includes down-payment assistance for first-time buyers, incentives to loosen strict local zoning restrictions, and new federal spending.
Steven Kull, Director of the Program for Public Consultation (PPC), which administered the “Swing Six” surveys, says the series focused on six states with historically narrow voting margins (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and inhabitants’ opinions on major policy issues. The last of 10 studies focused on affordable housing.
“In the swing states, bipartisan majorities want the federal government to pursue an active and multi-pronged approach to deal with the high cost of housing,” Kull said.
Unlike traditional polls, respondents to public consultation surveys complete an online “policymaking simulation” in which they are provided briefings and arguments for and against each policy proposal.
Before responding to questions about new federal spending and tax incentives for affordable housing, for example, participants learned about current practices and were reminded that the federal standard for a home to be considered “affordable” is that it costs the household no more than 30% of their income to live there.
Their answers revealed that majorities in every swing state, 69% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats, supported $40 billion in the form of municipal and state grants to build or repair housing affordable to very low and low-income households.
A majority (66% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats) also supported $25 billion in similar types of funding for low and middle-income households.
There also was a show of bipartisan support in swing states (69% of Republican respondents and 73% of Democrats) of a federal tax credit for building or repairing housing to be rented, on the condition that 60% of them are affordable to middle-income households.
Majorities in every swing state (collectively 63% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats) expressed support for up to $25,000 government assistance for first-time homebuyers to cover the down payment on a home, with more assistance for people whose parents never owned a home.
Survey participants learned about housing vouchers, which the federal government provides to very low-income, disabled or elderly people to help cover rent in the private housing market.
Majorities (69% of Republicans and 72% Democrats) then expressed support for increasing the number of people who can receive such vouchers and up to $24 billion federal spending to do so.
Participants also answered questions about large corporate ownership of houses.
After learning that some, but not all, housing experts believe the increase in large corporations purchasing houses accounts for some of the rise in home sale prices, respondents showed bipartisan support for two related proposals.
One, 66% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats said they are in favor of requiring corporations with more than $50 million in assets to sell all their single-family houses, townhouses and duplexes within the next ten years, and prohibit them from buying any more, with substantial financial penalties for non-compliance.
Two, 67% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats said they are in favor of denying corporations that own more than 50 single-family houses, townhouses or duplexes any federal tax deductions related to their ownership of those houses.
Participants were also asked about opinions on local zoning laws. They were informed that, according to experts, strict zoning laws that prohibit multifamily residences have contributed to unaffordable housing. They learned that the federal government, when distributing funds for infrastructure repair, has begun to prioritize municipalities that allow more dense and mixed-use housing.
Armed with this insight, 61% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats expressed support for the federal government continuing that policy. And a majority, 61% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats, said they would favor their own local government allowing for the construction of more dense and mixed-use housing.
The surveys were fielded October 4-14, 2024, to a representative non-probability sample of 4,638 adults by the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, including approximately 600 adults in each state of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and 1,190 nationally. Samples were obtained from multiple online non-probability panels, including Cint, Dynata, and Prodege. Sample collection and quality control was managed by QuantifyAI under the direction of the Program for Public Consultation. Samples were pre-stratified and weighted by age, race, ethnicity, gender, education, income, and metro/non-metro status to match the general adult population. The national sample was also weighted by marital status and home ownership. The national and most state samples were further weighted by partisan affiliation. The survey was offered in both English and Spanish.
The policymaking simulation utilized in the survey is available to the public on the University of Maryland website. The full report is available at publicconsultation.org.
