America’s young would-be homebuyers can’t afford to wait much longer for the housing bill
The gap between median home prices and under-40s’ wages has never been wider.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that he would send a long-awaited housing bill to President Trump today, as legislators look to push through the bipartisan-passed legislation that could perhaps help many Americans find home ownership that had been more out of reach than ever.
Speaking with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson said he’s confident that Trump will sign it into law, with the comprehensive housing bill aimed at boosting the housing supply and lowering housing costs.
“I certainly want him to take the biggest, boldest marker that he has and do that big Trump signature proudly on that legislation because we’re delivering for the people, and that’s what he wants to do,” Johnson said.
Trump was scheduled to sign the bill last Wednesday but canceled the event, saying he wouldn’t sign the housing bill until Congress passes one of his top legislative priorities: a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID at the ballot box.
As far as millions of people in the US are concerned, the housing legislation can’t really come soon enough, with the nation’s youngest would-be homebuyers locked out of the market by home prices that have soared far above the rate of their pay rises in recent years.
The bill would come as the gap between home prices and wages for adults under-40 is the widest its been in decades. In 2024, the average household headed by someone below the age of 40 brought in $100,900 a year, while staring down the $350,000 median home price in the US, according to data analyzed Pew Research Center.
At the same time, the cost of borrowing has swelled in recent years. Rates for the average 30-year fixed mortgage, the most common in the US, jumped in 2022 and has hovered between 6-7% since — the highest levels since about 2008.
The struggles aren’t exactly lost on the wider population: Americans across generations generally recognize that owning a home is getting harder, as 87% of adults say that buying a home is harder for young adults today than it was for their parents’ generation, per Pew.
