Plummeting prices, of course, would be a good thing for millions of Americans, especially first-time home buyers and young families who desperately need more housing options. Experience shows, however, that driving down home prices to help new potential homeowners is not politically acceptable to those who already own housing assets, or otherwise benefit from high housing prices.
After all, Trump stated it plainly enough. Millions of voters now consider expensive housing to be “a big part of their net worth” and we can expect plenty of political opposition to any policy that leads to falling prices.
Moreover, Trump is saying the quiet part out loud here. Historically, it has been very poor manners in Washington to explicitly admit that keeping home prices high is a deliberate policy. But, make no mistake. It is deliberate, and it is not merely the “unintended consequence” of good intentions.
