2026 is the year of housing

The center of everyone’s 2026 agenda

Are you thinking about housing affordability? (Photo by Wong Yu Liang)

I’ve been working on and covering housing issues for a long time, and the subject has become quite important to me personally. But it can be a bit challenging because it’s such a fragmented landscape across a large and diverse country, where all the different layers of government oversee different pieces of the housing puzzle. And while I’ve been pleased to see housing supply emerge as a much more mainstream issue in the 2020s (at least more so than it was when I first started writing about it), one consequence is that there are too many policy initiatives for each to merit its own column, even though I still want to know about them and acknowledge the work.

So one of my favorite things that Halina has been doing since she came on board is her weekly housing news roundup on Wednesday afternoon. I find it immensely helpful in keeping track of all the developments happening in different places.

We didn’t do weekly roundups during the holiday break period, but there were a lot of incremental developments, especially with mayors taking office or launching new terms, so we wanted to kick the new year off with a mega-roundup. If you’re interested in getting the (shorter) regular weekly updates, please sign up for the Evening Edition, which is available to all paid subscribers.

— Matt

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At the start of 2026, mayors, federal leaders, and markets are all grappling with housing.

From tenant protections and affordable units to land use shifts and rising costs, the nation’s homes are at the center of opportunity, stability, and community. The pressure to act is mounting — almost everyone now says they favor more housing — but funding is becoming scarcer, the insurance situation is getting worse, and even the states that have enacted the boldest supply-side reforms are facing pressure to scale them back.

Let’s take a look at how this is playing out.

Federal policy: momentum, appointments, and looming cuts

Donald Trump’s administration has signaled housing affordability as a priority for this year. In his December 17 address at the White House, he made clear his intention without providing any details or specifics about his plans.

“In the new year, I will announce some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history,” the president said.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai assured CNN that homeownership is a top priority for the president, and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett indicated to Fox Business that proposals are under development, even as analysts caution that the president’s ability to directly influence supply and prices is limited.

Personnel and programmatic changes followed.

On December 18, the Senate confirmed Joseph Gormley as president of Ginnie Mae (one of the federal government’s main financing arms for affordable housing projects) and Frank Cassidy as assistant secretary for housing and federal housing commissioner.

The U.S. Treasury also announced New Markets Tax Credit awards for 2024 and 2025, alongside reforms refocusing the program on community revitalization and compliance with federal law. The latest awards raise investments into rural and non-metro areas by 20 percent, with the goal of supporting small business growth, job creation, hospital expansion, and other community needs. The Treasury also signaled that future program funding will prioritize affordable housing development, among other measurable outcomes.

More ominously, Section 8 funding remains unresolved. Congress faces a January 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown. In the lead-up, House Republicans are putting forth proposals that could result in roughly 400,000 fewer households receiving vouchers, which could be paired with HUD rule changes that would introduce work requirements and time limits.

Mayors put housing first despite institutional limits

From Atlanta to Seattle, newly sworn-in mayors across the country have wasted no time addressing affordability and housing access in their first days in office.

In New York City, housing politics accelerated immediately after Mayor Zohran Mamdani was sworn in on Thursday.