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Right-wing media embrace Trump policies that experts say increase housing costs

Conservative media join Vice President JD Vance in scapegoating immigrants for high housing costs

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Right-wing media have continued to assist the Trump administration pivot to affordability after a slate of Democrats successfully ran on the issue, now focusing on high housing costs, which have risen in many markets during President Donald Trump’s second term. But many of the policies embraced by Trump’s media allies — including tariffs, 50-year mortgages, and mass deportations — will likely contribute to even higher housing costs.

Conservative media have also joined Vice President JD Vance in scapegoating immigrants for housing affordability issues, even as reporting and research suggest that immigration is not the primary source of high housing costs. 

Much like the hoax Vance propagated ahead of the 2024 election that immigrants were eating pets, the idea that immigrants are responsible for housing woes has fascist and Nazi roots.

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  • Many economists say immigration is not driving high housing prices

    • New York Times: “Most economists do not believe that immigrants have been a major driver of the recent run-up in housing prices. Rents and home costs started to surge in 2020 and 2021, before the flow of newcomers began to pick up in 2022 and 2023.” The Times article added: “Even the economist whose paper Mr. Vance had cited as evidence said in an interview that she thought that immigration’s recent impact on housing costs had been minuscule.” One economist said that “if her old results were applied to the recent immigration numbers, they could explain about one percentage point of the 58 percent rise in home costs over the decade through 2023.” [The New York Times, 10/11/24]
    • Former Yale Budget Lab economic director Ernie Tedeschi: “Actual studies find that the relationship between immigration and housing gets complex fast. As with the labor market, immigrants add to both housing demand *and* supply, and immigrant demand for housing is often not in competition in native-born demand.” In response to Vance’s argument during the October 2024 vice presidential debate in which Vance blamed immigration for unaffordable housing, Tedeschi noted, “In these studies of England, Wales, & Italy, for example, the net effect of immigration was to lower housing prices.” [Twitter/X, 10/2/24, 10/1/24]
    • Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies: “The surge in home price and rent growth predates the surge in immigration.” Senior research analyst Riordan Frost wrote that “the timing of the recent surge in immigration … does not line up with the high growth in both rents and home prices that happened at the start of the pandemic,” adding that “housing demand during the pandemic has been primarily shaped by native-born household growth in a time of constrained housing supply.” Frost further explained: “Home prices surged in both 2020 and 2021, and rents reversed a slight drop in 2020 with a sharp increase in 2021. After immigration ramped up in 2022, growth rates of house prices and rents slowed substantially. By 2023, as the surge in immigration continued, home price growth fell even further while rent growth completely stalled.” [Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies, 10/29/24]

  • Right-wing media join Vance in scapegoating immigration for the housing affordability crisis

    • JD Vance to Fox News host Sean Hannity: “A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens.” Vance added: “So, what we're doing is trying to make it easier to build houses, trying to make it easier to build factories and things like that so that people have good jobs. We're also getting all of those illegal aliens out of our country and you're already seeing it start to pay some dividends.” [Fox News, Hannity, 11/13/25]
    • Vance to Fox host Will Cain: “Why did housing get so unaffordable for American citizens? … You had way too many people in this country who are competing against American citizens for scarce homes.” Vance added: “Why has housing leveled off over the past 6 months? I really believe the main driver is you’ve had negative net migration into the United States for the first time in 60 years in this country. You cannot flood the United States of America with 20, 30, 40 million people who have no legal right to be here, have them compete against young American families for homes, and not expect the price to skyrocket.” [Fox News, Will Cain Country, 8/29/25]
    • Vance during the October 2024 vice presidential debate: “You have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.” [CBS News, 10/4/24]
    • On The Story with Martha MacCallum, Trump economic advisor Stephen Miran said about Vance blaming housing unaffordability on immigrants: “I absolutely believe that that’s the case.” Miran, who serves as the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and is a Trump-appointed member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors added on Fox: “There is an abundance of evidence in the economic literature that there is a relationship between immigration and home prices, because the supply of homes adjusts only very slowly, and if you throw a large number of new people into an economy, you're going to push up the price of housing because the people need a place to live. And the supply of homes can't expand instantly. It takes time.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 11/14/25]
    • Fox host Griff Jenkins: “Vice President Vance is saying, look, we have millions come across the border illegally, and therefore, what happened to the supply? Well, it narrowed. Americans can't find houses to buy.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/14/25]
    • Fox Business host Larry Kudlow: “I think one of the biggest problems in the Biden years, as JD Vance pointed out last night, is the immigration problem. … They are driving up rents and they are driving up home prices, and this was just a wave that we could not accommodate.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 11/14/25]
    • On Fox, Turning Point USA’s Andrew Kolvet said: “I agree with JD Vance. I believe we’ve got to get a handle on immigration” to address high housing prices. [Fox News, The Story, 11/14/25]
    • On Fox, Heritage Foundation’s E.J. Antoni said that Vance “really hits the nail on the head” regarding housing affordability. Antoni said, “The demand is obviously artificially high … because of illegal aliens in the country who shouldn’t even be here.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 11/13/25]

  • Multiple Trump policies are contributing to an increase of unaffordability in the housing market and cutting back on housing assistance

    • According to the National Association of Realtors' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the share of first-time home buyers has dropped to a historic low of 21% and the median age of first-time buyers has risen to 40 years old, an all-time high. According to NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research Jessica Lautz, “The historically low share of first-time buyers underscores the real-world consequences of a housing market starved for affordable inventory.” [National Association of Realtors, 11/4/25]
    • Census data shows that the average sales price for a new home in August of this year is 12.3% higher than August 2024. Census data released in September cites average new home sale prices from August: “The average sales price of new houses sold in August 2025 was $534,100. This is 11.7 percent (±9.5 percent) above the July 2025 price of $478,200, and is 12.3 percent (±10.3 percent) above the August 2024 price of $475,600.” [United States Census Bureau, 9/24/25]
    • After Vance’s comments during the 2024 vice presidential debate, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers pointed to a study showing that deporting undocumented immigrants led to higher home prices and reductions in homebuilding. Wolfers wrote: “You were promised econ studies on the effects of immigration on house prices. So let's deliver: An important new study finds that more robust enforcement of immigration laws reduces the construction workforce, which has led to higher house prices.” [Twitter/X, 10/1/24]
    • Economists and industry associations have warned that Trump’s mass deportations are hurting the construction industry. An October 24 New York Times article explained: “A number of economists and housing industry experts said that one of the solutions Mr. Trump was proposing — large-scale deportations — could actually backfire and make the housing crisis worse … because immigrants do not simply add to the demand for housing: They are an important part of the work force that supplies it. Foreign-born workers make up a quarter of the construction labor force.” Associated Builders and Contractors President Michael Bellaman told the Times earlier this month: “The current immigration policies are putting huge stress on the work force.” And NPR reported that a summer survey from the Associated General Contractors of America showed “in the past six months, 28% of the surveyed firms said they were affected by immigration actions — 5% said ICE agents had visited a jobsite, 10% said they had lost workers due to actual or rumored ICE raids, and 20% reported those concerns caused subcontractors to lose staff.” [The New York Times, 10/11/24, 11/2/25; NPR, 11/6/25]
    • Recent reporting showed that tariffs are also driving up construction costs for new housing. NBC News reported in July that “the total cost of building a mid-range single-family home could rise by more than $4,000 — an estimate that industry experts who reviewed the analysis called conservative.” A survey from the National Association of Home Builders alternatively found that “builders estimate a typical cost effect from recent tariff actions at $10,900 per home.” [NBC News, 7/6/25; National Association of Home Builders, accessed 11/14/25]
    • Trump imposed tariffs on lumber and some home furnishings in October. Bloomberg reported: “On Sept. 29, Trump announced 10% tariffs beginning Oct. 14 on imports of softwood timber and lumber, as well as levies on kitchen cabinets, vanities and other wood products that initially start at 25%. In January, the fees on kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities will increase to 50% and on upholstered furniture to 30%.” [Bloomberg, 10/14/25]
    • Multiple economists explained that the Trump administration’s 50-year mortgage idea could lead to higher interest rates, raise total interest costs, and drastically slow accumulation of home equity. The economists that criticized this Trump administration plan included former Labor Department chief economist Betsey Stevenson, former director of economics for Yale’s Budget Lab Ernie Tedeschi, Economic Security Project senior director for policy and research Mike Konczal, American Action Forum president Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and incoming Brookings Institution tax policy expert Jessica Riedl. [Bloomberg, 11/12/25; Twitter/X, 11/9/25, 11/8/25, 11/8/25, 11/10/25; Fox Business, Kudlow, 11/10/25]
    • New York Times: The Trump administration is planning to cut $3.9 billion in HUD funding, putting housing grants in peril. According to The New York Times, the policy “could quickly place as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people at risk of returning to the streets.” [The New York Times, 11/12/25]
    • NPR: “Trump's VA strands thousands of veterans by ending a key mortgage program.” NPR reported in May that the Department of Veterans Affairs “has ended a new mortgage-rescue program that so far has helped about 20,000 veterans avoid foreclosure and keep their homes.” [NPR, 5/1/25]
    • ProPublica: “Some 4 million people could lose federal housing assistance under new plans from the Trump administration, according to experts who reviewed drafts of two unpublished rules.” The article continued: “The rules would pave the way for a host of restrictions long sought by conservatives, including time limits on living in public housing, work requirements for many people receiving federal housing assistance and the stripping of aid from entire families if one member of the household is in the country illegally.” [ProPublica, 9/29/25]

  • Right-wing media have expressed support for many of these policies

    • Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade: “I’m not anti- the 50-year mortgage if it gets people, young families, from renters to buyers.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/14/25]
    • Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro claimed that Vance “is right that deporting 30 million illegal immigrants would definitely help” the housing supply. Shapiro added: “I mean, you have a lot of people in the country who should not be here, and who are taking up housing space.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 11/14/25]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones on the Trump administration’s 50-year mortgage idea: “I think that's going to encourage more younger people to get within the market to buy a house.” Jones also said: “One thing I like about this is, these are tangibles. This is something that could help the American people, especially younger Americans, immediately. But this administration also doesn't want to have a financial crisis like giving these mortgages to people that aren't qualified. So they’re not saying, hey, if you don't have the money. What they’re saying is, OK, let's span this out a little bit more. Let’s broaden this out a little bit. You may not be able to do the 30 year. But it's an option for you to do the 50 year.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/13/25]
    • Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh: “How about 50 million deportations instead of 50-year mortgages?” Walsh added: “A much better idea, one that will actually lower the prices of homes, is to, as we talked about a couple days ago, deport all of the tens of millions of foreigners who are here illegally and taking up housing that should go to Americans. A lot of housing. Give America back to Americans.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 11/12/25]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters: “If you let Trump deport the 2 million illegals that poured into” New York City, “that is going to bring rent down.” [Fox News, The Five, 11/6/25]
    • Conservative writer @amuse: “Trump’s 50-Year Mortgage: The New Deal for the Next Century.” In a later post on X, @amuse added: “Many developed countries allow 50+ year mortgages without any issue.” [Substack, 11/9/25; Twitter/X, 11/11/25]
    • Fox has defended Trump’s tariffs and dismissed their contribution to higher inflation. As economists this summer explained how Trump’s tariffs were beginning to show up in inflation data, Fox Business hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jackie DeAngelis, along with guest Art Laffer, denied tariffs' impact on prices. Meanwhile, inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index re-accelerated following Trump’s Fox-endorsed “Liberation Day” tariffs first announced in April. [Media Matters, 7/15/25, 8/12/25, 4/1/25; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 11/5/25; CBS News, 4/9/25]
    • Fox endorsed Trump’s April “Liberation Day” messaging of much higher tariffs on imports, with nearly 100 Fox personalities and guests cheering them on during the following week. [Media Matters, 4/1/25, 4/11/25]