America First Standard #14: The GOP still doesn’t understand the Housing Affordability Crisis
If you’ve followed my writing this year, then you’ve probably noticed that I’ve written before about the core economic issues holding back Generation Z from achieving the economic American Dream. One of the biggest economic disadvantages facing American young adults today is record-high housing prices.
For the past four years, the median American home has costed over $410 THOUSAND dollars. In the past fifteen years alone, housing prices have nearly doubled. As I discussed in a previous article here, sky-high housing prices coupled with high interest rates and rising property taxes/insurance premiums has led to the average age of an American home buyer now being 56 years old!—twenty years older than the average homebuyer in 1991.
Consequently, housing affordability has become a major political issue for many Generation Z voters in the United States on both the political left and right. In fact, New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won a vast majority of the Generation Z voters in NYC by focusing on housing/rental costs and the overall affordability crisis. While many (myself included) do not agree with the solutions proposed by Mamdani and other Democratic politicians to solve the affordability crisis in America, Mamdani is at least running on a platform that appeals to many Generation Z voters—something that the leaders within the Republican party needs to understand and address.
Even a Tech billionaire Peter Thiel has recently noted that our modern corporatist economic system in America doesn’t seem to work well for younger Americans:
But the housing crisis is not just an important political issue for Generation Z. According to a September 2024 survey from the Center for American Progress, 76% of Americans believe that housing in their community is becoming unaffordable. On a similar note, a recent Politico survey found that Americans ranked healthcare and housing as two of their top three affordability concerns in 2025.
Overall, the American people have become quite unhappy over the cost of living crisis over the past five years. President Donald Trump largely won the 2024 presidential election against Kamala Harris by promising to lower inflation and make daily life cheaper for average Americans. However, one of the messaging blind spots for the MAGA movement and the GOP currently is the rising cost of healthcare and housing in the United States.
Following the recent election victory of Zohran Mamdami, Republican politicians and strategists have started to understand the need to address America’s sky-high housing prices. For instance, Florida Republican James Fishback recently launched his Gubernational campaign by focusing on housing affordability.
But a recent announcement from the Trump administration reminded myself and many others that the Republican party as a whole still does not understand how to fix the housing affordability crisis. Earlier this month, President Trump shared the following image on Truth Social about supporting a 50-year mortgage:
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte also confirmed on X/Twitter that he is working to make 50-year home mortgages a reality within America.
To be completely frank, a 50-year mortgage is one of the worst economic policy ideas that I have ever heard of in American politics—on par with rent freezes, a fiat monetary standard, and NINJA home loans. In a separate article, I will probably dive deeper into just how terrible a 50-year home mortgage would be for the American people, But for today’s purposes, we can simply say that a 50-year mortgage will NOT solve America’s housing affordability crisis. Instead, people will become lifelong debtors to banks in a country with severe debt issues already.
The GOP’s support for 50-year home mortgages further demonstrates that the Republican party does not care about Generation Z’s inability to purchase a home. If the GOP doesn’t start promoting solid policies that benefit Generation Z, then no one should be surprised when more Generation Z voters support Democratic socialist politicians like Mamdani and AOC.
We need an “America First” housing policy that benefits hardworking American citizens over illegal aliens and globalist corporations. Unfortunately, we’re not getting much from either major political party when it comes to his key policy area.
