High Housing Costs Top of Mind for Voters

Voters around the country are calling on their elected representatives to pass policies that will end the housing crisis and bring housing costs down.

“A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll in May found voters rated the scarcity and cost of housing as their second-most important economic worry, after fears of stagnating income and rising prices,” write Moira Warburton and Makini Brice in an article for Reuters.

Home prices rose about 50 percent over the last five years, while rents increased by around 35 percent. “While family incomes have risen, housing costs and inflation-driven increases in the prices of food and other essentials have erased those gains. Some families live in fear they will not be able to keep a roof over their heads.”

At the federal level, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin is proposing a tax on investors who own more than 15 single-family homes, with revenue going to affordable housing. Other efforts to expand tax credits for affordable housing are stalled in Congress.