In a State of the Union address chock full of economic issues, President Donald Trump reiterated his goal of making the housing market affordable without lowering home values.
“We want to keep those values up, we’re going to do both,” Trump said.
Trump’s speech lasted an hour and 47 minutes, and the President took aim at economic issues as he sought to reassure midterm election voters he has curtailed rising costs that he campaigned to fix.
Low interest rates will help reduce the “Biden-created” housing affordability crunch, Trump said, while protecting the high home values of those “who feel rich for the first time in their lives.”
In his address, Trump said mortgage rates are “falling fast, and payments are down almost $5,000 since I took office.”
Citing Freddie Mac, Realtor.com said the average mortgage rate was 7.04% in January 2025, when Trump took office, compared to 6.01% now.
Trump talked about his so-called ban on institutional investors.
Executive Order Discourages Institutional Investors
His solution to the housing crisis includes a range of proposals to make it more attainable, Realtor.com said. Trump has signed an executive order to discourage institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, and he also has pushed for lower interest rates and directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase an additional $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower mortgage rates.
In his address, Trump asked Congress to pass legislation to make the ban permanent. The proposed investor ban has not appeared in the bipartisan housing package, the Housing for the 21st Century Act, which is now in the Senate.
Trump added that “another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is homeownership.”
The president said a mother of two from Houston in the public gallery had placed bids on 20 homes, but lost out to “gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream.
“Now, I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes are for people, really. That’s what we want, not homes for corporations,” Trump said.
Homeownership ‘Essential to American Dream’
At least 85% of Americans still believe that homeownership is “essential to the American dream” because it represents stability, upward mobility, and the opportunity to build generational wealth, said Shannon McGahn, Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer of the National Association of Realtors, citing a recent poll.
“The National Association of Realtors is grateful that the administration and members of Congress are focused on addressing the nation’s housing affordability and supply challenges. We share the goal of increasing housing inventory at all price points and advancing policies that strengthen communities, grow local economies, and create opportunities rather than limit it,” she said.
When it comes to the institutional investor ban, the questions now are ones of scale, enforceability, and spillover effects, Realtor.com Senior Economist Jake Krimmel said.
“In particular, large institutional investors represent a relatively small share of the national housing stock, and because their activity is often highly localized, it remains an open question whether banning new purchases would meaningfully shift metro-level markets,” he said.
Trump indicated in his address that there was momentum in the new-construction industry.
“A short time ago, we were a dead country; now, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest,” Trump said.
Construction Industry Employs Millions
“As thousands of new businesses are forming and factories, plants, and laboratories are being built, we have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time.”
After Trump’s address, the Associated Builders and Contractors President and CEO Michael Bellaman said in a statement that his organization “appreciates the president’s continued focus on the economy, expanding opportunity for American workers and addressing affordability.”
Bellaman added that the construction industry employs more than 8.3 million people and contributes more than $2 trillion annually to the economy.
He said in his statement that “while resilient, the construction industry faces ongoing headwinds from high costs, tariff uncertainty and a chronic workforce shortage.
“As these concerns mount, the president should note that this industry is key to achieving his promises to lower the cost of housing, infrastructure and energy for American families. ABC urges the president to create the conditions for contractors to thrive with pro-growth policies so that he can deliver on his affordability promise for the American people.”
In the Democratic rebuttal, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said her party was “working to lower costs,” but did not expand on the affordability issues Americans are currently grappling with.
Senate Democrats have unveiled several housing bills of their own aimed at cutting tax breaks and increasing home construction.
NAR Encourage Senate to Act
McGahn, from the NAR, says that “unlocking existing inventory, streamlining regulatory barriers, incentivizing new construction, and supporting responsible development are all essential components of addressing housing affordability.
“That includes reforming outdated capital gains thresholds that have not been updated in decades and now discourage longtime homeowners from selling, reducing mobility and limiting the number of homes available for new buyers,” she says.
She adds that the NAR encourages the Senate to consider the Housing for the 21st Century Act.
Krimmel said that four years of high mortgage rates layered on top of a longstanding housing shortage have made the housing affordability crisis a central focus for national policymakers.
Realtor.com said that the housing affordability crisis was featured only briefly within the broader affordability discussion, with Trump citing falling rents, lower mortgage payments from falling rates, and job growth in the construction industry.
