President Trump generated a wave of mostly negative response from his comments during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting where he insisted on keeping home prices high and appeared to denigrate many first-time homebuyers as not being deserving of the American Dream.
During the meeting, Trump addressed the question of affordable homeownership by declaring, “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home. I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes. And they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen.”
Trump’s comments mostly generated harsh responses. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, responded, “Donald Trump seems to think that if you can’t afford to buy a home in his economy, then you ‘didn’t work very hard.’ That’s about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, especially when millions of hardworking Americans can’t afford to buy their own home.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) echoed Warren’s comments, writing on X, “Are you trying to buy your first home? Trump wants your prices to go up. But sure Donald, keep saying affordability is a hoax.”
Outside of the political realm, Trump got a thumbs down from Jon Brooks, co-founder of Momentum Realty in Jacksonville, Florida, and a Substack and YouTube commentator on housing, chimed in by stating, “It used to be 3x income to buy a house now it’s 6x. It’s literally 2x the amount of work to buy a house… what is he talking about? Totally out of touch.”
Brooks added in a direct retort to Trump, “Just say you’re choosing asset owners over future homeowners.”
Trump’s remarks also raised hackles on the right. Joel Griffith, senior fellow at the conservative-focused Advancing American Freedom, tweeted, “The UNAFFORDABLE presidency… Trump promises to endeavor to further inflate home prices.”
However, Andres Mambuca Jr., a realtor and president of The Mambuca Companies in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, came to Trump’s defense by stating, “He’s right: lowering prices across the board is not the answer. Home equity is still the #1 way most families create and pass down generational wealth.”
Mambuca stressed that increasing housing supply would bring prices down, and he added that Trump was “spot-on about wealth building. For the millions of homeowners who have worked hard, paid their mortgages, and built equity, a rising (or at least stable) market protects and grows that wealth. Crashing prices would wipe out trillions in household net worth overnight — that’s not the American Dream.”
We are still fixing Bidens economy.
I do mot want my value to go down. We are finding ways first time buyers can get in but do not penalize those already in. These politicians are not Real Estate experts!!! As a realtor I deal with helping people get into houses almost every day.
This is coming from …….1973-1975 Housing Discrimination Case: The U.S. Department of Justice sued Trump Management Inc., Fred Trump, and Donald Trump for allegedly discriminating against Black tenants in their apartment complexes. The case alleged that black testers were denied apartments while white testers were offered them. The case was settled in 1975 with a consent decree, which required the Trumps to take steps to prevent discrimination, but it did not involve an admission of guilt.
1982 Class-Action Lawsuit: Trump Management and other landlords were hit with a class-action lawsuit by a housing advocacy group alleging continued discrimination.
Trump Village Settlement (2017): A housing cooperative in Brooklyn, which was not owned by the Trump Organization but had a connection to the Trump name, settled a lawsuit with the Justice Department for $50,000. The lawsuit alleged the complex refused to allow residents to live with their emotional support dogs.
Recent Civil Fraud Judgment (2024-2025): In February 2024, a New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay over $350 million in a civil fraud case for inflating his net worth to lenders. In August 2025, a New York appeals court threw out that specific $500M+ penalty as “excessive,” but upheld the liability findings that Trump and his company engaged in “persistent fraud”. This was a financial penalty related to business practices, not housing discrimination, though it related to his real estate holdings.
Trump Organization Tax Fraud (2023): The Trump Organization was fined $1.6 million for tax crimes in a criminal case.
As of late 2025 and early 2026, reports indicate a significant rollback of fair housing enforcement during a second Trump administration, including the elimination of “disparate impact” rules.
Owning a home is part of the American dream. My wife and I struggled to buy our first home. We had to sell other assets, not big stuff to make the down payment. It was exciting to get to that point. No outside help, no family money, just hard work, and luck. A very nice seller who was very helpful to us. I’ve been a real estate broker since 1968 and encouraged everyone to buy real estate. Not from me because I do commercial. Owning real estate is the best way to secure one’s future.
what this writer doesn’t get is that it does not make sense to crush the values of homes that these people have mortgages on. They don’t realize that some people with ARM’s can have an obligation for immediate payment if they own more than 80% of their value. You can slow the rise in value possibky, but to drop the value would cause more finacial stress than those it would help buying. You could cause people to have to keep their homes because they would owe more than they are worth. WRE needs to think things through and i spect what the expect before just running a story. Act lkke they know more than the financially uneducated majority of our population. Help them learn rather than get emotional.
government has zero chance of building homes or making them affordable on any level other than mortgage rates. local governments control zoning building codes Etc. get real
I think he forgot what he promised to get the votes he received..
Trump Trump Trump… everyone’s gotta trip on Trump. So he’s supposed to do something to slash property values? Let’s ponder for a moment what actually helped to jettison those house values up to begin with: ridiculously low interest rates (Biden Administration) & extended COVID conditions (again, Biden Administration plus “certain” states jumping hard & fast on THAT bandwagon).
Yes, we sure could use some lowering of the interest rates which Trump has been trying to do. With resistance in return. Trump could find a cure for cancer & the lunatics would still bitch & moan. Right now I’m sure there are plenty of folks who would actually welcome Covid-27 or some version of it to help with elections. Hello “Nipah”?
Anyway, it’s ludicrous to think people will support a forced devaluation of property values. Well, I take that back; the same people who feel entitled enough to believe their livelihood should be subsidized by hard working &/or smart investing citizens are indeed ludicrous enough to whine & pine for it. Perhaps this will constitute the next round of “peaceful protests”!
so do really know what’s been going on in the US? Lowering interest rates has not stimulated home buying or selling, because of the current economics going on un the United States!
Job insecurity, inflationary prices on everything from groceries, home utilities, healthcare premiums, prescription and supplies, and increases in property taxes due to curs in government funding.
“ridiculously low interest rates (Biden Administration)” !?!?!?!?
Rates went up during the Biden Admin, after dropping during trump’s 1st term. Regardless of how you feel about which is better, at least be honest. Plus the Feds are supposed to be an independent agency, trump has overstepped his role as POTUS by threatening Powell & the board.
“Trump could find a cure for cancer…” That’s laughable, he can’t even find his way out of his own ‘weave’ ramblings.
I want to say that Trump never seems to surprise me. Of course, he said what he said about keeping Housing prices high! Plus stating that the “first-time homebuyers as not being deserving of the American Dream”. “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home. I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes. And they can be assured that’s what’s going to happen.” Crazy talk, it’s not that we want to drive home prices but to build more affordable homes. The more affordable homes will not drive down home prices. To many factors to state why this would not happen. Only somebody with Trump’s IQ would think this! People you need to wake up and realize that if you have enough money, you can buy a get out of jail card, buy a position in government or anything! He is up to something for sure with these statements. Hopefully the mid-terms will elect people that will fight for those hard-working first-time homebuyers, create affordable housing being “Republican” or “Democrat”. These elected officials need to learn to play together period!!
Deep pockets push hard… but WRE has tried much better than others to be balanced. I’m in Los Angeles so I gotta live with serious TDS every day! Funny too because TDS is our major property disclosure here: Transfer Disclosure Statement :-).
Let’s be honest if anyone could screw things up it’s Trump. Jessyca wants to blame Obama and Biden but Obama was trying to clean up the Bush mess & Biden inherited the assinine response to Covid that Trump dumped on him. They all made mistakes but god help us if
diaper Donny ever gets control of the central bank, we’ll all be doomed.
Trump supporter, but his remarks were poorly worded. I think when rates fall it should spark a stronger real estate market. More homes on the market means more competition and should stabilize or slightly lower prices. Right now more buyers are chasing fewer available homes. Assuming the economy keeps improving, stronger employment and higher wages means more can access the market.
Trump opens his mouth before he thinks what he says will not come out right. Housing took off with the Fed lowering interest to 0, mortgage rates in the 2% range during his first term. More people were staying put, therefore the bidding on fewer homes sent prices up, faster and faster. I feel the best way to open up the housing market is to build starter homes, like the homes built in the ’50’s & 60’s, 900 to 1300 square feet, with room to expand. This would serve the people in the $250,000-$325,000 price range. As rates stay in the 5-6% range more people will start the normal moving to larger homes. Home values go up and down based on supply and demand.
Let’s face it, Trump just talks and he believes whatever he says is true. I don’t know if he really knows right from wrong anymore (if he ever did), but paying any attention to what he says just leads to frustration. If he’s going to do something, he just does it, right or wrong, legal or illegal, without much thought of the consequences. When he talks, he’s just gauging the responses to see what he can get away with.
Housing should not be a political issue that is not bi-partisan but just like everything else it is. There are solutions to fixing the housing debacle that Congress could implement. Instead of taking away homeowner benefits like capping the mortgage interest deduction and they could minimize the capital gains on the sale of homes.
I usually don’t comment on these, because someone usually says what I would have already. But no one mentioned the high cost of building anything in California. Over the last several years building codes in California have required new home builder to provide fire sprinklers and solar in new homes. That alone increases the cost per sq. ft. approximately $50.00. Building permit permit fees are very expensive further driving up the cost and just the process of getting a permit increases expenses. Decreasing regulation and expediting the process could bring the cost down. 65 years ago when I bought my first home it cost $10,500 it was a modest 1040 sq. ft. 3 bedroom 1 bath home with a 1 car garage and it wasn’t in the nicest neighborhood. But, it was a start; maybe that is why they call them starter homes.
I suspect that one factor in a lack of housing stock is the neglect of housing in areas of older cities and towns, a gradual process. Urban Planning studies don’t get too involved in this somewhat complex problem which means in decline, who wants to live there though a property might be on the historic register? In San Antonio is King Williams, an attractive district of different historic homes rescued by a visionary who got his friends to invest in the 1980’s. In contrast is Paterson NJ, where Alexander Hamilton helped it start as one of the first industrial cities and where I was told an inherited home with marble and fireplaces and beauty of the past could only be rented, not sold for its value. I’m not saying every old neighborhood can fill the bill and oh those old kitchens and bathrooms, but there have been some rescues such as even in Detroit. Also, building trades are geared to large houses and not rehab, let alone the 1950’s smaller houses that should be considered for one down-sizing or a first-time home buyer. And no, i don’t want home values to be ratcheted down.
Do city planners know how to stop decline, such as provide business incentives (PILOT)? Businesses are the support system and essential to health of an area, important in maintaining an older housing area. And. for example, if taxes are not paid in three years, why doesn’t a city sell that property with clear specifications and vetting of buyer and forestall the decay. Yes, try to sell that to the city council.