Trump’s Housing Gimmick Doesn’t Hold Up Under Inspection

Trump’s Housing Gimmick Doesn’t Hold Up Under Inspection

President Trump has finally figured out that the crushing cost of living crisis is sinking his Administration. His sudden pivot to affordability is being met by skeptical Americans, who don’t believe the president is fighting for working families or focused on lowering costs. Trump’s flagship affordability proposal, a new 50-year mortgage, was immediately panned by housing experts. While a new mortgage product may save a small amount on monthly payments, buyers would pay thousands more in interest over the life of the loan, face higher interest rates, and build equity more slowly. In short, it’s a bandaid over the housing cost bullet wound.

The price of housing is rising. The average home now sells for over $400,000, and a family needs to earn nearly $117,000 a year to afford one — up from about $78,000 in 2020. As a result, only 28% of homes for sale are affordable for the typical U.S. household.

Foreclosures are climbing, jumping by 20% in October.

Home sales are falling and the number of available homes on the market has dropped. Housing starts are down, meaning that the gap in housing supply won’t be closed any time soon. With no real plan to increase housing supply, Trump’s proposals to add buyers to an overpriced, undersupplied market will just push up prices without fixing the underlying issues with the faltering housing market.

Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative Alex Jacquez, shared his reaction:

“After promising to lower costs on Day One, President Trump is now grasping for a quick fix to an affordability crisis he helped create. Instead of taking real action, the administration has rolled out gimmicks that cost families more and solve nothing.”

This week in the Trump Slump, new polling and economic indicators continue to show that President Trump’s actions are deeply unpopular, hurting the economy, and harming America’s workers.

Polling and Economic Indicators on Trump’s Handling of the Economy:

• Foreclosures are climbing again. Foreclosure filings rose for the eighth straight month, with 36,766 properties hit in October — a 3% increase from September and 19% higher than a year ago, according to new data from Attom.
  • Foreclosure starts jumped 6% in October and are now 20% higher than last year, signaling that more families are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments as costs rise.
  • Completed foreclosures, the final stage of the process, spiked 32% year over year
  • Additionally, rent price growth is still outpacing inflation. Rent prices rose 3.5% over the 12 months ending in September, BLS data showed.
• Families are spending nearly everything they earn just to get by. 24% of households are spending 95% of their income on basic necessities like housing, groceries, gas, child care, and utilities. A new Bank of America Institute analysis released this week shows these families have almost no money left for savings, emergencies, or anything beyond the essentials.
• Workers are increasingly anxious about their finances. 55% of employed Americans are worried about losing their jobs, a new Harris poll showed.
  • Additionally, the same poll found that 62% say the cost of everyday items has risen just in the last month, and nearly half of those respondents say the increases have been difficult to afford, underscoring the pressure on household budgets.
• Trump’s inflation is costing families hundreds. According to a new Joint Economic Committee–Minority analysis, the typical family has shelled out more than $700 extra this year as prices continue rising under Trump’s watch.
• Job losses are mounting. Private employers cut an average of 11,250 jobs per week during the four weeks ending Oct. 25, 2025, according to ADP payroll data — suggesting that the labor market struggled to consistently produce jobs in the back half of the month.
• Trump’s approval is collapsing. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is managing the government, down from 43% in March, a new AP-NORC survey found.
  • The drop is driven largely by his own party: Republican approval has fallen from 81% to 68%, and independent approval has plunged from 38% to 25%.
  • Separately, new FiftyPlusOne polling shows Trump’s average approval rating has fallen below 40% for the first time in his second term, underscoring broad and growing discontent.

Additional Indicators:

• Household budgets are being chipped away from every angle. With Paramount+, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV+ all hiking rates, families are paying more just to unwind at home — yet another cost increase hitting households already squeezed by Trump’s economy.
  • HBO Max’s basic plan now costs $10.99 a month, up from $9.99, and more platforms are signaling future hikes. This steady drip of ‘streamflation’ mirrors what families are experiencing across essentials.
• Skyrocketing drug prices are forcing employers and patients into risky workarounds. A new CNBC investigation reveals that alternative funding programs (AFPs) are rapidly spreading across the country as specialty drug costs soar. AFPs contract with employer-sponsored health plans and often obtain medications overseas for a fraction of U.S. prices, shipping them directly to patients.
  • Federal authorities warn that importing medications intended for foreign markets is illegal and potentially unsafe, since these drugs travel through a supply chain not authorized by manufacturers.

Expert Commentary:

• Executive Director at Groundwork Collaborative Lindsay Owens highlighted Trump’s diminishing approval on the economy: “I don’t think Americans’ attitudes toward the economy, and toward Trump’s sophistication on the economy, will change until the facts on the ground change… It is his one strength that has now turned into a pretty considerable weakness, and we’re starting to see bumps in data that we haven’t seen in over 15 years.”
• Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative Alex Jacquez spoke about Trump’s 50-year mortgage proposal: “Trump is obviously trying to find an answer on affordability for housing, and so the 50-year mortgage is a play to lower people’s monthly mortgage payments, but the downside is, especially early on, all of that payment will be going to interest. And of course because you’re paying over 50 years and not over 30 years, you’re going to be paying off that mortgage for a lot longer. … It looks to be like the president is looking for a quick fix to a market that is fundamentally broken right now.”
• General Mills’ Group President of North America Retail & North America Pet Dana McNabb said during an Investor Day meeting that “the consumer is still adjusting to this once-in-a-lifetime inflationary period and trying to find their footing…they’re stressed.” General Mills’ CEO Jeffery Harmening followed up by noting that “the combination of the length of the inflation that we have seen and inflation is still running at or ahead of wage growth. And so consumers, if you’re making $200,000 a year or less, you are really feeling that pinch even still today.”
• Kraft-Heinz CEO and Director Carlos Abrams-Rivera laid out a grim picture on a Q3 2025 earning call saying that “fact that we have now one of the worst consumer sentiments we have seen in decades…it is a unique moment right now in which this is getting — the consumer negativity and the sentiment is extending longer than we had originally expected.”