President Donald Trump touched on housing in his Tuesday evening State of the Union address, but his lengthy, economy-focused speech offered little in the way of depth about the policies he plans to pursue.
Trump portrayed his first year as a “turnaround for the ages” from economic stagnation and high inflation, and implicitly connected housing affordability to improved macroeconomic performance rather than to specific policies. He did not discuss how most of the actions his administration has taken impacted housing in the past year, such as mass firings at HUD, ending the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule and his immigration crackdown.
Ahead of the speech, though, HUD highlighted a series of accomplishments under the Trump administration on its website, including eradicating “anti-Christian bias throughout the agency” and barring mixed-immigration-status households from living together.
Here are the housing topics Trump did mention in his annual speech to Congress.
Major investor ban on buying single-family homes
In January, the president signed an executive order that restricts institutional investors from buying single-family homes in an effort to boost homeownership. It contains a key carveout for build-to-rent communities.
During the speech, Trump highlighted a Houston woman in the audience who had bid on 20 homes but lost to “gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream.”
“Stories like this are why last month I signed an executive order to ban large Wall Street investment firms from buying up in the thousands, single-family homes,” Trump said. “And now I'm asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes for people — really, that's what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations.”
That institutional investor ban has not yet appeared in the bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act, which is now before the Senate.
Mortgage rates, home values
Trump promised to make housing more affordable while keeping values high and touted lower mortgage rates, which he said “will solve the Biden-created housing problem while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.”
The average mortgage rate was 7.04% in January 2025 when Trump took office, compared to 6.01% now, per Freddie Mac. Last month, Trump directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to further lower mortgage rates.
"We want to keep those values up, we're going to do both," he said. “Mortgage rates are the lowest in four years and falling fast, and the annual cost of a typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 just since I took office,” Trump said.
Military housing stipend bump
Trump also mentioned a $1,776 “warrior dividend” recently doled out to active-duty and reserve servicemembers, adding, “You know, they put it on my desk. We got the money from tariffs and other things."
However, the funds actually originated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included $2.9 billion earmarked for subsidizing military housing, NBC News reported. The funds were delivered “as a nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” the internal Pentagon News Service reported in December.
Apartment industry response
The National Multifamily Housing Council and National Apartment Association praised some of the Trump administration’s housing moves, but pushed back on the president’s characterization of Wall Street investors worsening housing affordability.
“Institutional investors support retired teachers, firefighters, union laborers and others who invest their retirement savings in multifamily housing through their participation in pension funds, life insurance companies, real estate investment trusts and other similar investment funds,” the organizations said in a Tuesday joint statement.
“Rental housing provides a strong investment opportunity with reasonable rates of returns for retirees and others and, at the same time, provides the resources needed to build communities. It is a ‘win-win’ for America.”
Addressing housing affordability requires participation from all parties engaged in residential real estate, as well as solutions that support new investment and reduce the supply shortage, the organizations said.
“This includes the important role that homes planned, financed, constructed and operated as build-to-rent communities play in our nation, offering many Americans the chance to choose from a wider variety of rental housing options that best meet their specific needs,” according to the statement.
Other groups pointed to policy actions that are negatively impacting tenants. National Housing Law Project Executive Director Shamus Roller said in a statement ahead of the address that the president’s actions will lead to more evictions and homelessness.
“While he’s at the podium, his administration is behind the scenes doing everything they can to unlawfully circumvent Congress’ power, gut HUD, and dismantle programs that keep our neighbors housed. These attacks will worsen the housing crisis for all of us,” Roller said.
“Trump has nodded towards affordability but his budget proposals and policy actions have made things worse.”
Democrats’ own housing plan
On Tuesday, 17 Senate Democrats put forward their own housing plan titled the American Homeownership Act that takes a different tactic to prevent Wall Street investors from buying up single-family homes. The bill would end tax breaks that allow large investors in SFHs to deduct depreciation and mortgage interest payments and preclude them from getting federally backed mortgages or buying foreclosed homes sold by the federal government.
Savings from ending the tax cuts would be used to build more affordable housing and promote homeownership. The proposal would keep tax deductions for investors that buy dilapidated homes and rehabilitate them.
The bill’s sponsors, which include Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development Tina Smith (D-MN), argue that ending tax breaks is a better solution than Trump’s proposed ban, and along with additional antitrust enforcement, would encourage major investors to sell homes to everyday buyers.
“America is in a housing crisis – and we need to tackle it from every angle. I’ve introduced the biggest bipartisan housing supply reform in decades,” said Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “This bill will take on predatory landlords while making investments to increase housing supply and boost homeownership for Americans.”
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