Former President Donald Trump pledged to lower the cost of homebuying by cutting away at the regulatory burdens faced by homebuilders.
During a town hall meeting in Oaks, Pennsylvania, on Monday evening, an audience member who identified himself as a single father and Iraq War veteran stated his dream of owning a home for himself and his son but complained that “mortgage rates under the Biden-Harris administration have made that impossible.” When asked how he could make homeownership affordable again, Trump replied that “a lot of people have this question” and pointed to the costs of creating new residences.
“First of all, it’s too expensive to build the homes,” he said. “They’re building them, and they cost a fortune. And 30% of the cost in some locations is the cost of planning and certificates and all a lot of nonsense they do. They make you go through hell. It takes years to get them, zoning approvals, all of the approvals you need. We’re going to get rid of a lot of that.”
Trump added that he would work to bring down interest rates, telling the audience member who questioned him that “you’re going to buy that house and you’re going to pay two-and-a- half, 3% interest.”
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has not endorsed a candidate for president, but it did fault Vice President Kamala Harris for putting forth a housing plan that did not address what the organization considered to be an onerous regulatory environment. NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom homebuilder from Wichita, Kansas, said in August that the Democratic nominee’s proposals “makes no mention of reducing onerous federal regulations that add to the 24% cost burden on single family home construction or the almost 41% increase on the construction of a multifamily unit.” The NAHB did not comment on the Trump plan.
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
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