BAY BUCHANAN: Here's the housing agenda that can turn the GOP around

Human Events 30 October 2026

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The November midterms are right around the corner and it's looking bleak for the GOP. Republican strongholds like Kansas and Texas are in play while Real Clear Politics projects Democrats

will take control of both the House and Senate.

Whoever you blame, you can't escape the specter of unaffordability dogging the American economy. Voters think prices are too high and don't think Republicans have the answers.

If the GOP is going to stem its losses next month, then it needs to tackle that perception head-on. Especially when it comes to one of the most important economic issues: housing.

A CNBC poll released on Oct. 6 found that housing is the number one political issue in the country today. It's easy to understand why: more than three quarters of homes across America are considered unaffordable, meaning they cost more than 30 percent of a household's annual income. That's trouble for an incumbent party that's campaigned as champions of the working class.

Republicans need to tackle the housing issue head-on. It's time for a GOP housing affordability agenda, one that falls firmly in the populist tradition trail-blazed by President Trump.

Trump got the ball rolling earlier this year when he signed an executive order that banned large institutional investors like hedge funds from gobbling up single-family homes. Too often these en masse purchases by Wall Street reduce competition and drive up prices.

Republicans need to continue in this vein and pledge to protect the housing market from special interests.

They can start by improving on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed earlier this year. That landmark housing bill made a number of key reforms, including trying to reduce the bureaucracy of environmental impact reviews that delay new home construction.

Still, according to developers across the country, these reviews remain a key obstacle to new houses getting built. Cracking down further on these bureaucratic delays, even imposing lower caps on their duration or exempting more types of construction projects from them, can loosen the stranglehold of green activists around the housing sector.

Another major obstacle is the weaponization of zoning codes by towns and cities, which use them to hinder new construction. The federal government traditionally hasn't touched this issue, deferring instead to local lawmakers.

Yet given the severity of the housing crisis, it's time to rethink this deference. Congress could mandate that zoning codes be changed to allow for more densely constructed single-family homes or more mixed development that sees homes built in otherwise commercial areas.

This would push back against the "Not in My Backyard" or NIMBY sentiment that so often blocks home construction on behalf of an established few. Some municipalities haven't updated their zoning codes in a century—a push from the Trump administration could bring needed change.

Corporate malfeasance remains a problem too and not just among institutional investors. Housing sales have long operated on the principle of Multiple Listing Services (MLS) where brokerages list a home and the information flows freely to platforms like Zillow and Redfin.

Yet lately certain brokerages, most notably Compass, have been withholding listings on private networks rather than publicizing them immediately. They've even been offering financial incentives to realtors to remove listings from housing databases. This "luxury lane" for privileged homebuyers threatens a two-tiered housing system that will see prices only go up.

The House Judiciary Committee has requested briefings on this cynical ploy. Republicans should make preserving the integrity of housing sales a campaign issue—and craft legislation that reins in companies like Compass if necessary.

If Republicans were bold, they could even build a little housing of their own. There are currently 15 million vacant homes across America, many of them in disrepair. The federal government could launch a cohesive effort to convert them into new housing and sell them back to private landlords with agreed-upon price caps to keep them affordable.

That would be another departure from the GOP playbook, but it would also boost the housing supply and apply downward pressure on prices.

A good home has always been a key part of the Republican vision for America. It's where families gather at the end of the day, and families are the backbone of the Trump-era GOP.

It's time to rescue housing from the Democrats, municipal tyrants, and corporate interests. It's time to make the American home affordable again.

Bay Buchanan served as Treasurer of the United States under President Ronald Reagan.

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