What does Donald Trump mean for housing in Madison, and Wisconsin?

As home prices and rents increase in Dane County and elsewhere, housing policy became a point of debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in 2024. Now, with Trump set to take office, his policies could have major ramifications in the Madison area and, some fear, might fail to address the underlying issues causing housing costs to rise.

Trump’s plans on the issue are less clear than those of Harris, who outlined a wide range of government interventions to boost housing supply, give prospective homebuyers tax credits to help them afford a residence and encourage local governments to remove roadblocks to new development. The Democratic vice president’s platform was in sharp contrast to Trump’s approaches, which centered on freeing up housing stock by deporting undocumented immigrants, spurring home construction with more favorable interest rates and authorizing more building on public lands.

It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will try to cut federal funding for housing issues. That could mean cities like Madison will have to pony up more of their own limited funding to build affordable housing. “Regardless of who got elected, we would have said that there's these deep structural crises in the housing system. And there are some really thorny trade-offs involved,” said Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And you cannot just cut your way to housing affordability.”

Trump’s pick to lead the federal agency tasked with developing housing policy, former NFL player and politician Scott Turner, has some background in housing work. During Trump’s first term, Turner led the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, which targeted investment via a new federal program called Opportunity Zones, for development in low-income areas, including new housing. Trump and his allies have given onlookers some ideas of what to expect. Vice President-elect JD Vance has argued that Trump’s pledges of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants will free up housing stock, driving down prices in the process. Others, including trade associations representing the building industry, have argued the opposite: that mass deportations will reduce the labor necessary to build new houses or apartments. Wisconsin employers are already projected to need 7,000 more construction workers by the end of next year, even without any other changes in immigration or labor policy.

Read more: https://captimes.com/news/government/what-does-donald-trump-mean-for-housing-in-madison-and-wisconsin/article_e30e7e38-ab6a-11ef-bc50-57f052275df5.html