Donald Trump recently said, “I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes.” This came during a cabinet meeting amid growing voter anger over housing costs. Trump added, “We’re not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody that didn’t work very hard can buy a home.” However, his past campaign goal aimed to cut new home costs in half by cutting regulations that raise construction expenses. Owning a median-priced home now costs nearly half the income of typical families. Renters spend almost 40% of their expenses on housing. Some believe Trump might push the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, hoping to keep home prices high while reducing mortgage payments. Experts warn this could backfire by raising long-term mortgage rates. The core issue is rising income inequality. High-income, college-educated workers drive up housing demand and prices, pushing homes out of reach for lower-income, non-college workers. Cities like Houston and San Francisco show rents rising sharply in line with elite wages, far faster than wages for poorer workers. Calls for deregulating zoning laws to increase housing supply have support across politics. Still, recent research shows supply growth alone can only slowly reduce prices. A 1.5% annual boost in housing stock—the fastest many cities have seen—would take decades to make rents affordable for median low-income workers in cities like New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Other ideas, like New York’s rent control expansion, may protect some tenants but reduce affordable housing supply and even increase gentrification. Experts say fixing the crisis means increasing affordable homes, but simple deregulation or policies like ICE enforcement won’t solve the problem quickly or fully. The US housing challenge is a tangled web of economics, politics, and social change, far from a quick fix.