Trump signs executive orders aimed at addressing home affordability concerns ahead of midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a pair of executive orders aimed at showing his commitment to improving home affordability — a key issue for many voters going into November’s election for control of the House and Senate.

Under the first order, the federal government would reduce its own housing regulatory burdens and create incentives for best practices by state and local governments, with the goal of making it easier for builders to construct more homes. The second order would reduce the regulatory burdens tied to mortgages and make it easier for smaller community banks to provide home loans.

“Layers of unnecessary regulatory barriers, slow permitting processes, and onerous mandates at all levels of government have delayed construction, restricted development, and driven up the costs of new housing,” said a draft of the order. “These constraints have made housing less affordable for many Americans.”

The executive orders — obtained exclusively by The Associated Press — show how the Trump administration is seeking to put more of a policy emphasis on the importance of home ownership. Housing affordability has emerged as a fundamental political challenge for Republicans and Democrats alike, with lawmakers working on measures to show they’re responding to concerns that buying a first home has become difficult for middle-class families.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a broad bipartisan bill on housing, which seeks to adjust policies to increase construction and limit institutional ownership of home development. The measure’s status path in the House is uncertain. The White House said in a March 2 statement that it supported passage of the measure.

It’s unclear how quickly federal efforts can generate new construction or meaningfully reduce mortgage costs, as the key regulatory issues on home development involve state and local government policy choices and mortgage rates will reflect changes in financial markets.

The multiyear shortage of construction has kept prices high, while mortgage rates spiking in the aftermath of the pandemic have left many renters unable to buy and existing owners unwilling to part with their current properties.

The orders cut environmental regulations and simplify the mortgage process

Under the first order signed Friday by Trump, federal agencies would create incentives to speed up permitting times by state and local government, including the curtailing of “green” building codes, reductions to design and building mandates and making it easier to deploy innovative construction methods.

The order looks heavily at federal environmental regulations, directing the EPA and secretary of the Army to review and update stormwater, wetlands and other water-related permitting requirements to reduce costs and improve the ability to insure homes.

The departments of Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are instructed to eliminate regulations and update programs that are reducing residential development. Multiple federal agencies would also seek to eliminate environmental and energy efficiency regulations that could increase costs and restrict home construction.

White House officials said the Biden-era energy efficiency mandates in HUD and Agriculture departments’ guidelines could add up to $9,000 to housing construction costs. The officials requested anonymity to outline the details of the orders before their signing, saying that other federal regulations would add even more for participants.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation would simplify its guidance for historic reviews, while the federal government would seek to have its New Markets Tax Credit program align with the Opportunity Zone tax breaks created during Trump’s first term.

The order does not seek to change state and local zoning codes, as the administration has sought to preserve suburban housing rather than increase housing density.

The White House officials said federal agencies can incorporate best practices on housing regulations as a criteria for rewarding discretionary grants to state and local governments. One example of a best practice would be local governments having a 60-day deadline for approving building permits. The administration sees this order as having a longer term effect for homebuilders and buyers.

The second order would aim to streamline the mortgage process, directing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to change its mortgage guidelines so that smaller banks could engage in more lending. The CFPB would update the requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to lessen the regulatory burdens for obtaining a mortgage, among other directives.

The administration’s theory is that the changes to mortgage regulations would increase the number of financial institutions competing to provide home loans, thus reducing the cost of borrowing for buyers. The White House maintains that its changes would preserve the financial safety and stability of the mortgage market.

The White House officials expect that potential homebuyers could see the impact of the changes to mortgage regulations in a matter of months.

GOP election fortunes could be hurt by elevated home prices

High home prices have emerged as a key issue for voters under the age of 40 going into this fall’s midterm elections.

The median price of an existing home sold in February was $398,000, according to the National Association of Realtors. That total is nearly five times the median household income. A historic rule of thumb was that homes generally cost three times the household income.

The average 30-year mortgage rate in February was 6.05%, down from 6.84% a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said as part of its sales data.

The reduction in borrowing costs has made monthly payments more manageable, but rates are still much higher than the sub-3% averages that occurred in 2020 and 2021 as the weakened economy dealt with the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath.

Trump has primarily sought to address the challenge of home affordability by directing the two mortgage companies under government control, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds.

He has also called for limiting the ability of financial institutions to buy homes and caps on the interest rates paid on credit cards, arguing that both moves would make it easier to buy homes.

But the president has previously pushed back against the idea of dramatically increasing construction, saying that doing so could bring down home prices and the net worth of existing owners. That has him trying to balance his desire to keep prices rising while also finding ways to boost ownership for people who are now renting.

“People that own their homes, we’re going to keep them wealthy,” Trump said at his January Cabinet meeting. “We’re going to keep those prices up. We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home.”

Josh Boak, The Associated Press