Something unusual appears to be happening on Pennsylvania Avenue. Politicians across the spectrum are suddenly aligned around a single issue: affordability, especially housing affordability.

That alone feels almost miraculous.

Proposals now being discussed include:

• Temporarily capping credit card interest rates at 10%

• Banning large institutional buyers from purchasing single-family homes

• Directing government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up to $200 billion in mortgage bonds to help push mortgage rates lower

On paper, these ideas sound consumer-friendly. They may even help politically. But the real question is whether they meaningfully address the core housing problem.

The Supply Problem No One Escapes

Housing affordability in the U.S. is not primarily a financing problem. It’s a supply problem.

For years, the country has underbuilt housing, particularly in high-demand job centers. Zoning restrictions, permitting delays, community opposition, labor shortages, and rising construction costs have all limited the creation of new homes, especially entry-level and middle-income housing.

Lowering interest rates helps buyers bid more, but it doesn’t create more homes. When demand is stimulated without increasing supply, prices tend to rise, often erasing the benefit of cheaper financing.

Will These Policies Help Buyers?

Some measures may provide short-term relief:

• Lower rates could improve monthly affordability at the margin

• Limiting institutional buyers may reduce competition in certain submarkets

• Temporary consumer credit relief could free up household cash flow

But none of these directly solve the structural imbalance between how many homes people want and how few are available.

The Risk of Treating Symptoms

Policies that focus only on affordability tools, without expanding supply, risk treating symptoms rather than causes. They can:

• Inflate home prices

• Reward existing owners

• Leave first-time buyers competing in the same constrained market

This isn’t theoretical. We’ve seen it before.

What Actually Moves the Needle

Sustainable affordability requires:

• More housing units

• Faster approvals

• Zoning reform

• Incentives for building smaller, more affordable homes

• Infrastructure investment that supports density

Without those changes, even the most well-intentioned financial interventions will struggle to produce lasting results.

The Bottom Line

It’s encouraging to see bipartisan focus on housing affordability. That alone matters. But affordability without supply is a fragile promise.

Until policy addresses how and where we build more homes, especially in the places people want to live, affordability efforts will remain constrained, no matter how united the messaging. If you’re trying to make sense of how housing policy, interest rates, and supply constraints affect your buying or selling decisions, I can help you separate political noise from market reality.