Throughout this week, the Washington Examiner’s Restoring America project will feature its latest series, “Reforming the Deep State: Reining in the Federal Bureaucracy.” We invited some of the best policy minds in the conservative movement to speak to the issues of what waste, fraud, abuse, and unaccountability exist throughout the federal government and what still needs to be done. To read more from this series, click here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is right. America does have a housing crisis. Stubbornly high construction costs and interest rates have made housing prices across the country unaffordable for many average families. Both homeowners and renters struggle to afford the cost of housing, and the so-called solution of government-regulated affordable housing is exacerbating the problem.  

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While government-regulated “affordable housing” projects have been praised by leaders in cities across the nation, in reality, few things capture the dysfunction of government solutions so acutely. 

Instead of providing accessible, affordable options for families in need, affordable housing projects are so heavily regulated that they end up costing significantly more to build when compared to market rate projects.  In just one example in San Jose, California, an “affordable” housing project topped out at nearly a million dollars per unit, an oxymoron to say the least. 

Thanks to layers of red tape, mandates, and regulatory hurdles, what was meant to be a lifeline has become so complicated that it takes specialized accountants, lawyers, consultants, developers, general contractors, and property managers to complete the paperwork to build and operate the building. From zoning restrictions to environmental reviews that can take years, the cost of navigating the regulations makes new housing impossible to deliver at a reasonable cost. Add in labor mandates that stifle competition and local regulations to compete with federal ones, and you have the perfect recipe for sky-high prices, endless delays, and fewer homes for the people who need them most. With already tight federal and state budgets, the significant per-unit costs for affordable housing mean families continue to struggle to afford the housing they were promised.

THE LEFT’S REAL POWER IS CONTROLLING THE BUREAUCRACY

Government-regulated affordable housing is the housing equivalent of: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”   

The more the government tries to micromanage the housing market, the worse the crisis becomes. America doesn’t need more bureaucrats writing rules and allocating subsidies. It needs a supply-side solution that cuts government regulation, reduces costs, and actually delivers housing people can afford.

That means cutting unnecessary rules, reforming outdated zoning, and reducing costs for builders and investors so that those savings can be passed on to buyers. If a family can build a house for less on their own than the government can subsidize one, something has gone terribly wrong. The solution is not to pour more taxpayer dollars into the same broken system; it’s to get the government to reform its broken process. 

There are examples that show how well a free-market approach can work. The Opportunity Zone program, created in 2017, is a prime success story because it relies on private investors rather than government subsidies. 

By encouraging investment in distressed or underserved communities, OZs incentivize the creation of hundreds of thousands of new housing units, new businesses, and new jobs, all at prices that builders can provide and consumers can support. Instead of big government dictating outcomes, it created space for entrepreneurs and local leaders to step up. 

A solution to the affordable housing crisis is central to economic stability and the American Dream. For too many families today at every income level, the dream of home ownership feels out of reach. The idea of a “starter home”, once a ubiquitous milestone, has been nearly obliterated. 

Last year, monthly mortgage payments on the median-priced home rose to $2,570, under terms typical to first-time homebuyers (a 30-year loan with a 3.5% down payment). This record-breaking mortgage payment is 40% higher than it was in 1990. The average homebuyer would need an annual income of at least $126,700 to afford a home. The median age of the first-time homebuyer also peaked at 38 years old. Additionally, the difference between white and Hispanic homeownership rates inched up to 25.2 percentage points in 2024, while the white-Black gap remained stuck at 27.7 percentage points. 

Sadly, just 13% of renters can afford to even buy a home at today’s prices. Alexander Hermann of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard shared the bleak state of the housing market: “Only 6 million of the nation’s nearly 46 million renters can meet this benchmark. Amid this, the U.S. homeownership rate fell in 2024 for the first time in eight years.” Instead, young people are living with their parents longer, couples are delaying starting families, and workers are moving farther from their jobs. This is not simply a matter of housing policy. It is a matter of social and societal stability. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE ‘REFORMING THE DEEP STATE’ SERIES

American families deserve a housing market where efficiency is rewarded, not punished. They deserve leaders willing to say that the status quo is unacceptable. The path forward is not another round of federal programs with billion-dollar price tags. It is a revival of common sense. 

If we want strong families, healthy communities, and a growing economy, we need to break free from the stranglehold of government dysfunction. We need to embrace policies that empower builders and families, not bureaucrats. The housing crisis is a problem the government helped create, and it will only be solved when the government prioritizes the needs of the people. America is ready to build again. Washington just needs to let it.

Jill Homan serves as deputy director for economy & trade and campaign director for American Revival at the America First Policy Institute.