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A Phil Hall Op-Ed: If you were watching TV in the 1980s, you probably recall Clara Peller. She a diminutive elderly lady who appeared in commercials for the Wendy’s restaurant chain, and she is best remembered as the unimpressed patron of a fast-food joint who is presented with a hamburger consisting of a ridiculously oversized bun and an equally silly beef patty that was roughly the size of a half-dollar coin. Peller gazed at that absurd offering, looked about with impatience, and started bellowing in a foghorn voice: “Where’s the beef?”

Peller’s catchphrase came to mind today when I was watching a new video that President Trump posted to his Truth Social page. Trump narrates this glossy one-minute video that offers ample services of platitudes about the American Dream, adding that homeowners have “great partners Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, helping families turn hard work into homeownership, helping Americans turn dreams into something lasting – something truly their own.”

The video ends with these words flashed on the screen: “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac: Let’s Make Home Buying Great Again.” Trump’s narration ends by reminding the viewer that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the “keepers of the American Dream.”

To which I have to say: “Where’s the beef?”

Let me explain what I mean. Ever since Election Day when Democrats swept the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City with pledges for rent freezes, the Trump administration belatedly began talking about “affordability” – especially as it relates to housing, where prices in too many markets are either at or near record highs while affordable homeownership opportunities for first-time buyers are an elusive commodity. A recent study by the National Association of Realtors that identified 40 as the average age for first-time homebuyers only reinforced what has been a long-simmering problem.

This sudden mania for “affordability” is no surprise, since economic issues drove the recent election returns and will certainly have a greater impact next year. Since taking office, the Trump team has only occasionally been addressing the housing affordability question, offering ideas that seem to do everything except answer the question.

Early in the administration, we’ve heard about commandeering federal land for housing developments and selling surplus government properties to be transitioned into housing, but to date nothing has come from those ideas. Bill Pulte, Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said his agency was evaluating assumable mortgages and portable mortgages in the name of affordability, and he has also shilled for VantageScore to enable more people to qualify for mortgages. Pulte also convinced Trump to talk up a 50-year mortgage proposal, while the president blamed homebuilders for not constructing enough residences.

That’s all very entertaining, of course, but none of those ideas address the core problems of why homeownership is unaffordable for too many Americans. This situation has nothing to do with the paucity of mortgage products or a shortage of consumers with satisfactory credit scores, nor is it going to be solved by turning aged federal office buildings into apartment complexes – these non-solutions are an insult to our intelligence.

With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the administration seems focused on a get-rich-quick scheme involving an initial public offering for the enterprises rather than addressing the drastically lopsided nature of the secondary mortgage market. With homebuilders, the administration is pushing for higher construction levels but is not emphasizing the need for lower-priced starter homes or encouraging the use of solutions such as modular housing or 3D printed construction to lower building costs.

Strangely, there are some topics that the administration refuses to consider. There has been a repeated effort to eliminate the Community Development Financial Institution Fund, despite its long and well-established record of helping lower-income households gain affordable housing. Pulte has been dragging his feet about reforming the Loan Level Pricing Adjustment matrix – he would rather talk about allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept cryptocurrency assets as part of the criteria for buying mortgages from lenders. However, neither Pulte nor anyone else in the administration will talk about the impact of hedge funds and institutional investors buying up single-family homes.

Also, what exactly has the administration done to work with states and cities to address zoning and development restrictions in markets where the affordability crisis is most severe? If anything has been done on that front, it has been the best-kept secret in Washington.

When it comes to Trump’s affordable homeownership plans, there’s been a lot of flashy ideas that give the false impression that progress is underway. But at the end of the day, that old question is still relevant: Where’s the beef?

Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].