The Landlord Lens - Trump Might Declare a National Housing EMERGENCY

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Could Donald Trump really declare a National Housing Emergency? With housing costs at record highs and millions of Americans priced out of the market, this shocking move could change everything. From sky-high mortgage rates to rent hikes and the ongoing affordability crisis, the idea of a “housing emergency” isn’t just political theater—it could reshape real estate, landlords, and renters across the country.In this video, we break down:- Why 75% of Americans can’t afford the median home price right now- How a Trump-backed emergency could impact mortgage rates, rents, and property values- What it would mean for landlords vs. corporate investors- The ripple effects on construction and housing supply- If you’re a landlord, renter, or investor trying to survive the housing crisis, you don’t want to miss this.

Trump and Secretary Bessent are batting around the idea of declaring a national emergency, and that is the housing affordability problem in America. 75% of Americans can't afford the median home price, and that's a really rough place for us to be in. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. I am joined finally after a one-month hiatus by my good friend Seamus Nally. Shamus, how are you doing? I'm doing great, John, and I'm excited to be chatting with.

you today. So excited. And today we're going to be talking about a national emergency. Well, you know, we've been talking about this specific national emergency for almost a full year, and that is the housing affordability problem in America. Trump and Secretary Besson are batting around the idea of declaring a national emergency, supposedly with capital letters, so they can do some special hard-nosed stuff to lower the price of housing. Yeah. And the reason that everyone wants to lower their price of housing is at this point where 75% of Americans can't afford the median home price. And that's a really rough place for us to be in. Yes, especially as a country that expects to own their house. Yeah, in fact, it's one of the

main tenants of the American dream, right? Yep. And so it does make sense why this would, the volume on this issue would just continue to go up, up and up. And not at all surprised actually to hear from the pulpit that this is something that. that should be corrected. I think the question really is, is this something that can actually be fixed from a federal government standpoint? Right.

And some of the suggestions they have seem to me to be a lot, a lot of overreach. Despite, I think they look like solutions to the actual problems in most of the cases, which is good. But definitely a lot of mandate stuff. So let's jump into what those things are. Let's do it.

All right. First on the list is lowering closing costs. This seems like a great idea because of how much money people spend on closing costs, right, Seamus? Yeah, I thought I was like, heck yeah. And then I looked at it and it's actually a pretty small amount. It turns out of the cost of buying a home. It can be 2 to 5% based on the state.

So the difference is pretty widely there. Sometimes those costs are bore by the buyer. Sometimes it's by the seller. So in general, that feels like a much smaller lever to pull than I guess I originally thought when I heard that. Yeah, seems largely irrelevant. And just seems, especially because it's state by state, it seems like it's way, the policy headache of actually implementing something like this

would not be worth the impact to the housing market at all. Yeah, absolutely. In the states that it's the highest, Washington, D.C., New York, California are the states that have decided to tax their citizens more than on everything. So it doesn't seem like it's really something for the federal government to worry about and is something definitely for the local citizens to vote on. Well, the second thing that we're seeing in a lot of places, a very unique. Trump thing to do is to cut tariffs on construction-related materials. Big impacts are going to be

things like steel and Canadian lumber. And in theory, that would also lower construction costs, which would trickle into lower new housing, which impacts existing housing. So that does make a lot of sense. Tariffs also have been imposed by the federal government, right? So it seems within within their ability to cut that. So for this one, it's kind of like two thumbs up that's actually going to work. I would say one challenge or some data that we've seen recently is there's 500,000 more sellers right now

than there are buyers, right? So, well, typically we talk about housing being a supply and demand, a supply problem. There's not enough supply for the demand. So what the hope would be is it's cheaper to build, therefore supply increases, right? And then prices drop on all of those, right? and more buyers come into the market.

But that does not seem like the fastest way to fix this housing emergency. And then this third one is a really interesting idea. It would buck the trend of America going back to George Washington. But it's an interesting idea. And that is standardizing building codes at the federal level. That sounds really challenging to do, honestly,

because based on where you're building, those codes differ, right? Someone who grew up in upstate New York, I know the building codes there differ from where I live now in Colorado, right? Yeah. And so that just seems really challenging to me. Are there any federal regulations that maybe could be ease that would play a role in that? Or is it really having to dive in and change what my home inspector is looking for when I do that porch?

Yeah, it is hard to imagine the actual impact this has, right? Is it, does this just make it easier to become a multi-state developer? Because you can just expect the same building codes wherever you go? There are definitely some areas that we know building is easier, right? And we've seen the price of homes and rent drop because it is easier. I mean, a lot of people point to Austin, which I think has been on kind of a hot streak or maybe cooling streak in terms of the price of rent and the price of housing is dropped as they've kicked into high year to just try to build more housing for people. That is generally a positive. Right? The last piece of all of this, and honestly, what I think is, the underlining force that the current administration would love to change is really the interest rates. That's a whole can of worms. But at the end of the day, they would love to see the federal interest rates drop, therefore making it easier to get a mortgage and have your spending power go a little bit higher so you're paying reduced interest rates. But he can't do that even with

a national emergency. That's true. This emergency would not necessarily be doing that. But we've seen presidents try to do things they can't do previously and it's worked mildly. That's right. Yeah. We'll just keep rolling the dice. Mix results. Mix results. Okay, so that's about the national emergency that may or may not occur. I will say, though, there's very little of this actually has any direct impact on a self-managing landlord, does it? I don't think so. Really, I think the likelihood of any of these changes to change your rental market drastically enough that it'll change your business is probably pretty minimal. Yeah. So I don't think so. I know as a real estate investor, I'm definitely excited to see more affordable homes become available because I would

love to participate in that market, even though it will drive down the price of rents. My goal is not to charge the maximum of rent, right? I want to hold the asset in it to accumulate in wealth over time. Okay. Well, Seamus, thank you so much for all the commentary there. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's fun to be back in the hot seat with you, John. So fun. Well, hey, everybody. Thanks again. If you like this show, like and subscribe. We'll be back bringing you some insights from the landlord perspective about current events. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.