The cost of housing has become nigh insurmountable for many Americans, but their struggle can be a politician’s boon—a big structural problem ripe for capitalization in a campaign. As he kicks his reelection effort into gear, President Joe Biden is getting in on the action, touting his proposals to lower the cost of living. He spent a brief but significant chunk of his recent State of the Union address on a slew of new proposals intended to make housing more affordable for renters and first-time homebuyers; the following week, he outlined these policies in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2025.

This renewed interest from the president highlights the importance of housing policy amid a challenging election season. “If inflation keeps coming down, mortgage rates will come down as well,” Biden said in his State of the Union remarks. “But I’m not waiting.”

As is always the case, the president’s budget is essentially a grab bag of messaging items that are unlikely to end up getting passed by Congress. But its implications extend beyond the campaign trail by staking out territory for future policy debates. Some housing advocates hope that introducing these proposals will help provide new momentum for lawmakers to take up these issues—and perhaps even encourage the president to become more ambitious.

“The sum total of the proposals is really exciting, and the way in which they’re trying to look at the whole housing supply shortage [and] housing unaffordability problem holistically,” said Janneke Ratcliffe, vice president for housing finance policy at the Urban Institute. “Anything that can lighten the load on the renters is obviously going to be good for the households, but also good for the communities they live in and the economy.”

In 2022, over 22 million households spent more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent and utilities, according to a January report by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Those who spend this portion of their income are considered by housing experts to be “cost-burdened.” Some are more cost-burdened than others: Among such households, 12.1 million renter households spent more than half of their income on housing........

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