Nearly four out of five Americans agree that the country is experiencing a housing affordability crisis and that officials at all levels of government are not doing enough to address this issue, according to a survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
“As the nation celebrates National Homeownership Month, this survey is a sobering reminder that Americans are calling on policymakers to ease burdensome regulations, roll back inefficient zoning rules, and provide builders and developers with the proper business climate so that they can construct more homes and apartments to provide our citizens with better homeownership and rental housing opportunities,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan.
The survey found that 77% of respondents reported a housing affordability crisis in their communities. Eighty percent said their city and county officials were not doing enough to encourage the production of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households, while 51% indicated their elected representative in Congress is doing too little to address housing affordability at the national level.
NAHB has proposed a 10-point plan to tackle the nation's housing affordability challenges through initiatives at local, state, and federal levels. The poll found solid support for many of these proposals across partisan, regional, demographic, and socio-economic lines. Key findings include:
- 80% believe policymakers should consider housing affordability when enacting new laws and regulations.
- 74% think government should provide incentives to builders and developers to create more affordable housing.
- 65% would support replacing the mortgage interest deduction with an annual tax credit for mortgage interest that can be widely claimed by middle-class homeowners.
- 64% support incentivizing local governments to ease zoning regulations preventing affordable housing construction.
- 56% believe it is important to create more medium-density housing affordable for moderate-income households, younger households, and first-time home buyers.
“In this pivotal election season, voters are showing that housing is a critical American issue that transcends party politics,” said Harris. “With a nationwide shortage of 1.5 million housing units, the American people are demanding that their elected officials put in place policies that will enable builders to increase the production of sorely needed housing. This poll should be a wake-up call for officials to act now because they may find it could be too late come November.”
This national online survey of 20,041 adults was conducted April 16-23, 2024 by Morning Consult. It has a margin of error of ±1%.
