Kamala Harris solidifies housing affordability as a top political issue with DNC address
One of the bigger moments when Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night came when the subject turned to affordable housing.
"We will end America’s housing shortage," the newly-minted Democratic nominee promised, with a roar in response from delegates that marked one of the largest cheers of the night as the crowd acknowledged an issue that voters again and again put at or near the top of their list of concerns.
It capped a Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where the topic of shelter was in heightened focus. It featured a detailed back-and-forth that signaled perhaps there could be a robust debate next year in Washington D.C., depending on how political power is divided up in the nation's capital in 2025.
Harris kicked off this discussion with the release last Friday of a cost-of-living plan that focused on housing first, and then she capped it off by returning to the intensely complicated topic multiple times during her speech last night.
Read more: Is it a good time to buy a house?
And the nominee was just one of dozens of leading Democrats who weighed in with comments that tellingly featured a variety of ideas. There was a Harris focus on tax credits to a Barack Obama focus on lessening regulations to scattered mentions of more controversial ideas like rent controls.
On Thursday night alone, the topic came up again and again from figures like former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and Rep. Ted Lieu of California, and it also proved to be a useful way to slam Harris's rival.
"Donald Trump, you denied black people the American dream," National Urban League president Marc Morial said Thursday as he focused on a chapter from Trump's time as a real estate developer when he was sued for discriminating against black tenants.
For his part, former President Donald Trump has also discussed housing and put forth various ideas, including opening new federal lands to development in order to bring down costs.
"Republicans will reduce mortgage rates by slashing Inflation, open limited portions of federal lands to allow for new home construction, promote homeownership through tax incentives and support for first-time buyers, and cut unnecessary regulations that raise housing costs," added the recently released GOP platform.
The Harris plan
A Harris-Walz plan released last week focused on several efforts aimed at the housing market, including tax breaks that the campaign said could result in the construction of 3 million housing units in the coming four years.
The plan includes what the campaign is calling a first-ever tax incentive to homebuilders for building starter homes, other new tax credits and funds focused on renters, and promises of new actions against corporate landlords that raise rents.
It also features a new first-time homebuyer tax credit of $25,000 that would go toward a down payment for people in good standing looking to buy a first home.
Read more: First-time home buyer grants: Everything you need to know
That piece of the plan — which could spur demand — has come under the most direct criticism from Trump allies and some economists who charge it could simply raise the price of homes without helping the underlying issue.
Harris has said that the credit is to help tide people over "while we work on the housing shortage," but it points to hurdles that would face any government response.
Another indication of the complexities was evident when former President Barack Obama brought up housing as one of only a few policy topics in his own speech to the convention. He endorsed the Harris plan but notably offered other ideas as well.
"We need to build more units and clear away some of the outdated laws and regulations that made it harder to build homes for working people in this country," Obama said.
And even more controversial ideas were in evidence this week, largely on the sidelines of the convention, with some advocates bringing up topics like rent control.
Harris also has a record on housing she touted Thursday night and is likely to talk more about in the weeks ahead.
She rose in Democratic politics after a stint as California's attorney general, where she helped lead an effort to force big banks and mortgage lenders to pay more in a settlement for California homeowners impacted by illegal foreclosures during the crisis.
It was a chapter of her career that, per Harris's own memoir, even included a shouting match with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon.
"I took on the big banks, delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure, and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation,” Harris added in her speech Thursday night during an address that also touched on her own mother’s journey to homeownership.
"It's personal: Kamala remembers her mother's pride at buying their first home after saving for 10 years," added Fudge, the former HUD secretary, when it was her time to tout Harris.
Hurdles facing any government response
Yet, in spite of the focus on the issue this week, giant hurdles would face any government efforts to address what experts often note is an intensely complex issue that has only gotten worse since the pandemic.
The stickiness of housing costs, in evidence as recently as last week in the latest inflation report, is still largely attributed to a low supply of housing that has been fueled by an array of factors from local zoning restrictions to nationwide trends in housing markets.
"The cause of the rising cost of housing is not a mystery," wrote economists Jim Parrott and Mark Zandi in an op-ed this week. "We simply don't have enough affordable homes for rent or for sale."
They largely endorsed Harris's plan in that essay, writing that incentives proposed by Harris "would provide enough incentive for developers to tackle the supply shortfall across much of the country."
What experts often stress is that any government action would need to be carefully calibrated to not just spur more housing supply but also spur it in places where it's needed most.
In any case, the political salience of the topic is unlikely to fade anytime soon with voters again and again listing housing affordability as a top-of-mind topic that could drive their vote.
And that's not just a key topic in densely populated cities and on the coasts but also in a growing number of communities across the country that also happen to sit in key battleground states.
"For a safer place to live, Kamala will fight for you," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said just before Harris took the stage Thursday night in a speech largely focused on her housing record.
"We’ve got one hell of a fighter," he added.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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