President Trump returned to the White House with pledges to address the housing shortage and affordability crisis. But his moves to crack down on trade policy, immigration and the size of the federal government threaten to compound the strain on homeowners he has vowed to ease.

Donald Trump's recently unveiled tariff plans have sparked a stock market meltdown and stoked fears of a looming recession, which experts said would further slow down an already "comatose" U.S. housing market.

On March 10, the S&P 500 share index fell nearly 3 percent after a tumultuous week during which Trump first announced sweeping 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and then paused them for a month for most products coming from the two countries. On the same day, the Nasdaq share index dropped by an even worse 4 percent.

The Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing, threatening projects that keep tens of thousands of units livable for low-income Americans, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

The action is part of a slew of cuts and funding freezes at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, largely at the direction of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, that have rattled the affordable-housing industry.

According to data from the U.S. Census, in 2024, states with Republican governors issued 4.66 permits for housing units per 1,000 residents, while the same statistic for states with Democratic governors was at 3.60. AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Econofact.

The Biden administration released a new report Friday showing that homelessness in America increased by 18% in 2024, partially attributing the spike to the huge influx of immigrants settling in the country.

The nation’s homelessness problem worsened again this year.

A record estimate of 771,480 people were homeless in the U.S. in 2024, an 18% increase from a year earlier, fueled by factors including an influx of migrant families, a lack of affordable housing and natural disasters, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development....

More Americans were homeless this year compared with 2023 as families continued struggling to afford rent and other basic necessities, federal officials announced Friday.

Across the U.S., more than 771,800 people lived without housing in 2024, according to a count taken annually on a single night in January. The number for January 2024 is 18.1% higher than in 2023, when officials counted about 650,000 people living in homeless shelters or in parks and on streets. In 2022, the population of people experiencing homelessness was about 580,000.

Mortgage rates this week dropped to their lowest level in more than a year, delivering some long-sought relief for homebuyers.

The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage stands at 6.47%, Freddie Mac said on Thursday. That figure marks a drop of more than a percentage point from a peak attained last year after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates in an effort to fight inflation.

Mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in more than a year, raising hopes for relief in the battered U.S. housing market.

The average rate on the standard 30-year fixed mortgage fell around a quarter percentage point to 6.47%, according to a survey of lenders released Thursday by mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac, a low not seen since May 2023 and the sharpest weekly decline in around nine months.

Mortgage rates dipped significantly this week, dropping to the lowest level in more than a year, according to Freddie Mac. Rates for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.47%, down from 6.73% last week.

"Mortgage rates plunged this week to their lowest level in over a year following the likely overreaction to a less than favorable employment report and financial market turbulence for an economy that remains on solid footing," Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said.