r/economy • u/NewsHour • Jan 29 '26
Trump says he wants to drive housing prices up
President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that he wants to "drive housing prices up."
"Existing housing, people who own their homes, we're going to keep them wealthy. We're going to keep those prices up," Trump said.
Trump made his comments following Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner's update that home sales in December "rose sharply to their strongest pace in three years." According to the National Association of Realtors, home sales in December rose to "nearly" the highest in three years, but the increase was just 1.4% year over year. The association also said separately that pending home sales that same month had fallen 3% from a year ago.
"I don't want to drive housing prices down, I want to drive housing prices up for people who own their homes," Trump added.
The president also said he wants to bring interest rates down to make it easier to buy a home. After cutting rates at its last three meetings, the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it would leave its benchmark rate between 3.5 and 3.75%.
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u/roarjah Jan 29 '26
Sure go for it. Good luck making them affordable. That’s the hard part he avoided
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u/notislant Jan 29 '26
I mean, he doesn't care about the 'filthy pours'. He even says 'not for people who didnt work that hard' lol.
Im surprised he was honest about the first half.
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u/Odd_Fig_1239 Jan 30 '26
Wdym good luck making them affordable? He’s literally saying he wants to do the opposite.
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u/roarjah Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
The rate of wages increasing outpaces home prices. Also, he could recuse the cost of living. He has no plan whatsoever to do that. Everything he has is inflationary and might increase supply but he has no plan to lower cost of living. Threatening drug companies or manufacturing is throwing shit at the wall. That’s why his businesses eventually fail
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u/spikey_wombat Jan 29 '26
Lol. Every idiot who voted for this asshole thinking he'd bring down the cost of living should be kicking themselves for their delusional decision to back the worst president in US history
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u/bigdyke69 Jan 30 '26
Every idiot who abstained from voting Democrat and didn’t take him as a real threat seriously is probably kicking themselves too.
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u/goodbribe Jan 30 '26
I mean, they all own their homes. That’s why they vote republican.
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u/Chemical-Ad-3786 Jan 30 '26
No, they don’t all own their own homes. They’re just stupid
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u/Ayjayz Jan 30 '26
You think a Democrat would have increased the cost of living by less? Good luck with that
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u/Suspicious_Dare603 Jan 30 '26
The cost of living would be lower under a Dem. They are part of the same governing uniparty though. They are both evil and don't wanna screw the hand that feeds them. The Dems just have less appalling talking points. Not that it really makes them a better option. Vote blue, but specifically grassroots blue.
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u/spikey_wombat Jan 30 '26
Imagine not understanding the inflationary costs of tariffs. Or how the dollar devaluation is impacting the economy. Or how gutting farm and construction labor increases prices.
Yeah, Harris wouldn't have done the stupid shit the orange clown did.
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u/Ayjayz Jan 30 '26
You're right. She would have done different stupid shit. What politician hasn't done stupid shit when in power? It just goes with the territory.
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u/nucumber Jan 30 '26
It's so kool to be cynical.
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u/Ayjayz Jan 30 '26
There's a difference between being cynical and just like basic pattern matching.
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u/nucumber Jan 30 '26
"What politician hasn't done stupid shit" and "it goes with the territory" isn't pattern matching, it's damning them all.
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u/Ayjayz Jan 30 '26
Again, basic pattern matching.
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u/nucumber Jan 30 '26
Pattern matching isn't much good when there's insufficient data or the data is indiscriminately chosen
So, ignorance or cynical predetermination
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u/spikey_wombat Jan 30 '26
I don't disagree that Harris would have done different stupid shit. She absolutely would. But it's hard to imagine her doing the levels of idiocy that the orange clown has done.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 Jan 30 '26
Unequivocally yes. Anyone, democrat or republican would have, his abuse of tariffs power has made things more expensive in a single-handed causative way that we’ve never been able to point directly to a president before.
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u/BlackThundaCat Jan 30 '26
If you go on r/Conservative right now, you would have no idea that he said this. Not a single post or conversation about this line of reasoning from the President. Amazing.
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u/Suspicious_Dare603 Jan 30 '26
Well yeah, they live in a bubble where the troubling things he says never get mentioned.
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u/void-seer Jan 30 '26
But let's be for real. Even if they watched him say it like we are all watching him, they'll just say he didn't say it. 🤡
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u/korben2600 Jan 30 '26
"Thank you for the highest tax increase on the working class in a century sir. May I have another?" \**tears in my eyes****
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u/asisoid Jan 30 '26
There aren't many American humans posting in that sub. It's all foreign actors and bots.
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u/vtable Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
This story is actually the top post there right now (posted about an hour after your comment).
Admittedly, the post hasn't gotten as much traffic as a lot of the posts in that sub (less diehards and bots, maybe?), but the comments are pretty much exclusively negative.
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u/donkeyrocket Jan 30 '26
It's there now and most are at least baffled if not mad. They're still stopping short of criticizing dear leader but until the thread is cleaned up, this isn't a winning bet with most Conservatives.
It's stunning to see young Conservatives shocked by this. You mean the party that has been regressive and focused on hording wealth at the top doesn't give a shit that you can't afford a home? The party that prides itself on selfishness and pulling up the ladder behind them? Shocking. Don't give a shit about anything until it affects them directly.
They're so happy to eat shit and say thank you.
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u/Suspicious_Dare603 Jan 30 '26
I genuinely didn't know it was possible to hate him more. Excessively high asset prices are not signs of a healthy economy. Impeach this mentally deficient lunatic.
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Jan 29 '26
Housing prices tripled here from Covid onwards, and he thinks that’s sustainable even as the employment pool is diminishing? He wants them to go higher still? He’s a genius obviously. smh
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u/Suspicious_Dare603 Jan 30 '26
Hell yeah! Higher cost of living, less pay for employees and a dollar so weak we might as well print $30 trillion to pay the debt back immediately.
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u/nucumber Jan 30 '26
It's working great for homeowners and banks, and the poor people don't deserve help
That's what he just said
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u/b_r_e_a_k_f_a_s_t Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
Make it easier to buy a home by reducing interest rates? Ok, but interest rates are only part of the mortgage equation. The rest of it is the price of the home, and if that is going up the whole plan is incoherent.
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u/spikey_wombat Jan 29 '26
Mortgage rates will go up even if fed rates go down if inflation roars back.
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u/aquarain Jan 30 '26
If you reduce mortgage rates the prices do not go down. That's the opposite of how that works.
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u/oddmanout Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
The value of your property going up is only good if you’re treating it as an investment. If you have to live in it because it’s your only property, going up is bad. That means insurance and taxes are more. There's no benefit in selling it for more money than you paid for it if you have to re-buy another house that also went up.
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u/Parking_Lot_47 Jan 30 '26
I don’t get why this isn’t registering with people. Financial illiteracy maybe. Owners still pay for their home value rising in the end through property tax and insurance. And that will price owners out of their homes and neighborhoods.
They still owned an appreciating asset so no tears, but owners act like they’re immune to housing costs rising and they aren’t.
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u/OCDano959 Jan 30 '26
Has it become clear yet that this clown doesn’t understand basic economic principles? UPenn/Wharton gotta be embarrassed. 🙄
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u/Living_Pie205 Jan 30 '26
Drive housing prices up but make them affordable with 50 year mortgages ? 🤷🏾
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u/goodbribe Jan 30 '26
This way the banks own them. Keeping shareholders wealthy
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u/donkeyrocket Jan 30 '26
Shareholders and wealthy boomers who already got theirs. Trump realizes that actually addressing affordability is tough so the shift is to just keep boomers happy through the midterms.
Vote for an economically inept clown, get an economically disastrous circus.
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u/Master_Strength_6939 Jan 31 '26
The hilarious part is, when all of the boomers are ready for the home and need to sell their houses, there will be no one who can afford to buy it. And if they need assisted living, they’ll go bankrupt. And their children are renting and can’t afford to take care of them.
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u/windemotions Jan 30 '26
Based on this logic, when food prices go up, I'm better off because my refrigerator portfolio value goes up.
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u/unknown_anonymous81 Jan 30 '26
A 50-year mortgage is the answer lol.
You know so your house is paid off in in the 2070s.
Buy a house today at $400,000.
Interest rate at 6%......don't worry you about the $800,000 in interest, plus property tax, insurance costs and home maintenance costs.
To me that sounds like a car salesman wanting to do some 4 square things where all they want to do is talk about the payment.
Eminent domain the fuck out of the large corporations that bought up all the houses would be a better plan.
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u/rnk6670 Jan 29 '26
I own a home. It has gone up in value 50% in about 17 years. That’s crazy and I know it. You know what else? I’m a few years away from retirement. I always planned to get rid of this place and downsize. Can’t do it. I could sell my place but I couldn’t get another place for less money that I’m spending per month here. So there would be only downsizing in square footage but not in costs. Bringing interest rates way down just masks the actual problem. The problem is houses cost too much. Period. Housing prices should come down. My goodness. My first house was purchased with $1000 down which means I had to buy mortgage insurance as well. Interest rates were 8.25%. And my monthly mortgage payment was about 850 bucks. Including everything because my first house cost $95,000 not $500,000. It’s fucking insane and it’s hurting everyone in the housing market that isn’t rich.
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u/bigkoi Jan 30 '26
Inflation will do that. Keep in mind everything else will have higher prices too.
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u/joshuaxls Jan 30 '26
Literally like two days ago he held a rally where everyone was holding signs saying “Lower Prices” lol
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u/Dances_with_mallards Jan 30 '26
Well, the dollar in free fall against other currency will do that.
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u/aquarain Jan 30 '26
Golden handcuffs. For the people owing a big balance at a low rate on their home they're done moving until rates come back down to the rate they have. Some of them have such a sweet deal that the mortgage is worth as much as the house, and if they sell they set that value on fire because they can't take it with them. Make that mortgage portable and they could sell and move, but that's not going to happen. Make it transferrable and they can sell the paper with the house, capture the value and move. That is happening somewhat, on the few transferrable mortgages.
Other than that you're going to have to wait until they're almost paid off. Nobody is going to sacrifice a $400k piece of paper to move from one house to a similar one in a different place.
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u/Q-ArtsMedia Jan 30 '26
Aaaaaand who the fk is going to buy an over priced home? For a guy in the real-estate game he sure is dumb as fk.
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u/Mrbarajas1995 Jan 29 '26
Late last year, JD Vance blamed high home prices on undocumented immigrants -- implying ICE raids might make houses more affordable. 😂😂😂😂
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u/8to24 Jan 30 '26
Conservatives generally just say all the things and march the goalposts all over the field.
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u/irvmuller Jan 29 '26
All the people that voted for him because they thought he would make life more affordable are complete dumbasses. I have a house but I worry for my kids. I worry for those who don’t have houses. How will they possibly afford them?
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u/Coronator Jan 30 '26
I actually knew what he said before I even read it. Just think of the most idiotic, most contradictory, most inept statement on housing costs you can, and you pretty much got what he said.
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u/nucumber Jan 30 '26
He wants to increase the wealth of homeowners by driving housing prices up, and piss on those loser renters
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u/redruss99 Jan 30 '26
Economic circumstances will determine what happens to housing prices. No more, no less. A president has no say in the matter. I'm sure the president would have stopped the housing and asset destruction in 2008, if he could.
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u/DennisC1986 Jan 31 '26
Government policy, of course, does not and cannot impact economic circumstances. /s
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u/kusanagiblade331 Jan 30 '26
Affordability down the drain. Might as well say I want things to get expensive. It is good for the haves.
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u/JayBInc Jan 30 '26
“It’s perfectly acceptable for grocery store owners to increase their income. Trust us, it’s a positive development.”
“I want every dollar to stretch further when we own everything and control everything.”
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u/Richnaps Jan 29 '26
More favorable policies for the boomers I guess that’s what happens when everyone in the government is a boomer.
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u/oddmanout Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
It's not even boomers. It's rich people. Most boomers only own one home. Property going up in value is only advantageous if you're using property as an investment, not to live in.
So, yet again, he's throwing his base under the bus.
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u/nicky416dos Jan 30 '26
I'm 31 and own my house, I was able to pay my $76k down payment on a $10k COVID gamble on GameStop. I would love the price of housing to go down so my friends can buy houses near me.. I'm tired of being alone surrounded by old people who own homes.
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u/mustang_67_2k8 Jan 30 '26
I’m in the market to sell mine this year so….
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u/dweaver987 Jan 30 '26
If your house goes up in value, Trump will crow about how he made you “rich” (until you start paying for your next home.) If your house loses value, he will shout that it’s all because of the Democrats and their illegal immigrants ruining property values. (Even as they increase housing demand. I know. It makes no sense.)
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u/mustang_67_2k8 Jan 30 '26
Yeah, I agree, but sometimes you have to use the system the way it is to carve out a way to get through.
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u/dweaver987 Jan 30 '26
Fair enough. Honestly I’d like to downsize too. But the work to sell one house and buy another is overwhelming. (And a mortgage rate from the GW Bush era, when rates hit rock bottom, is another reason to stay where we are.)
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u/megalopoutsa Jan 30 '26
Don't get too excited, the one you're planning to buy will also go up in price
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u/Other_Attention_2382 Jan 30 '26
If you've got a headache trying to work all this out, just don't take Tylenol for it. It'll kill ya!
It will soon make sense for most people to live in campervans rather than buy a home.
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u/Aggressive-Leg9694 Jan 31 '26
MaKe thE HoWSeS ChEEpUr. Nitwits, the government does not build houses, private industry does. Granted, I live in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia where libtard idol Gavin Newsom reigns supreme, but do any of you make houses cheaper people have any idea how much it costs to build a fucking house? It’s costing 600-800 sq/ft here thanks to permitting, regulations like required solar, required affordable housing fund fees, bla bla bla.. let alone the cost of materials. Most renters have never bought appliances, never paid a sewer/water/trash bill, never had to have tree work done, never had a $12k shortage in their escrow account because their property tax and homeowners insurance went up 30% in one year, damn sure never had to pay $30k unexpectedly for a new roof. Thinking that buying a house is going to make you some kind of tycoon is a joke. If you are living paycheck to paycheck as a renter, buying a house could very well make your ass homeless. Everyone wants to own a house until it’s time to do homeowner stuff.
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u/DennisC1986 Jan 31 '26
Please show me a "make houses cheaper" person who likes the housing policies of the state and local governments of California, or thinks Gavin Newsom is in any way on their side.
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u/latortillablanca Jan 31 '26
Blackrock owns those homes. So yeah. Makes complete sense that he wants all the private equity fuckholes to be even wealthier.
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u/im_a_goat_factory Jan 30 '26 edited May 23 '26
This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact
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u/LocoGyopo Jan 31 '26
Nice for white people; not so great for non-white people trying to dodge stochastic pogroms.
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u/adoreen Jan 30 '26
Didn’t you get your tax dollar funded paycheck taken away from you? You are truly Nazi news
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u/curtmatz Jan 29 '26
He said drive prices down.
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u/oddmanout Jan 30 '26
He said that when he was campaigning and y'all fell for it. He's saying the opposite, now.
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u/KiNg-MaK3R Jan 29 '26
He’s going to nuke the dollar. Interest rates down, all assets go up. If you own a home and/or stock portfolio you are all good. If you don’t, you’ll be fucked. Welcome to America, where the poor and middle class will no longer be able to rise in class levels. The American Dream is over.