Canidates Remain Silent on Housing Policy

Not unlike the primary debates for the 2016 presidential nominations, Monday night’s first presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, covered topics hotly debated this election season, but left out any discussion on housing policy and legislation.

Despite their lack of discussion on the housing market during the primary debates and now the first presidential debate on Monday, both candidates have expressed their stances on housing sporadically throughout the race.

Trump spoke at the National Association of Home Builders’ 2016 Midyear Board of Directors Meeting in Miami, Florida and stated he believed overregulation was the source of many issues in the housing industry including the job growth.

“The U.S. economy today is 25 percent smaller than it would have been without the surge of regulations since 1980,” said Trump. “So many businesses knocked down. We will issue an executive order to impose a temporary regulation moratorium on new agency regulations.”

Furthermore, he has stated that he plans to discontinue funding of at least some government housing programs and work to ease the current regulatory framework if elected. He has specifically alluded to the possibility of eliminating The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Clinton on the other hand as shared via her website that she plans to “reduce barriers to lending in underserved communities,” and “support housing counseling programs.” She has also noted that if elected she will “provide the resources necessary to overcome blight, giving communities a chance to rebuild and renew with new businesses, new homeowners, and new hope.”

"For Hillary Clinton, growing middle class jobs and middle income security is the single lens in which she will judge economic policy," said Gene Sperling, a top economic advisor to Clinton, in an address to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Board of Directors at their Midyear Meeting in Miami. "What better helps the middle class than housing? Housing creates jobs in the United States. There is probably no other sector that creates jobs throughout income levels - from construction jobs to professional and servicing jobs."

Though Trump and Clinton remained did not discuss their housing policy stances during the debate, their was a brief exchange regarding the foreclosure crisis in which Clinton resurrected an accusation she made against Trump earlier this year.

"Well, let's stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago," Clinton said. "We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in the middle class, took their eyes off of Wall Street, and created a perfect storm. In fact, Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, 'Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money.' Well, it did collapse."

Trump responded to the accusation by saying, "That's called business, by the way."

Clinton continued, "Nine million people—nine million people lost their jobs. Five million people lost their homes. And $13 trillion in family wealth was wiped out. Now, we have come back from that abyss. And it has not been easy. So we're now on the precipice of having a potentially much better economy, but the last thing we need to do is to go back to the policies that failed us in the first place."