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House Representative Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, believes President Donald Trump’s rumored housing emergency declaration would be a “game-changer.”
In a press release issued by his office on Wednesday, Flood, who serves as the House Main Street Caucus chair and the chair for the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the House Financial Services Committee, said he hopes Trump follows through on declaring an emergency on housing affordability.
“When you have a housing shortage and a supply issue, it pushes up valuations, which pushes up your property taxes, because your valuation goes up. It pushes up home insurance premiums because the value of your home is more expensive if there was some kind of a claim,” Flood explained.
Flood believes that by “putting his thumb on the scale,” Trump would be able to change the whole conversation surrounding housing affordability.
On Tuesday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner said that talks on the issue were continuing, but he would not confirm anything.
“Those discussions are being had, not just from an emergency declaration standpoint, but what can we do in order to bring the costs down… and bring the supply up,” Turner said in a statement.
Flood said that his panel is currently working on bipartisan legislation designed to make housing more affordable. The legislation is expected in later this fall. He is optimistic that legislators will have something finalized by early next summer. With mid-term elections slated to take place in November 2026, Flood knows improving housing affordability would be seen as a major win for incumbent lawmakers.
“And with the president doubling down on an issue that I am very passionate about, I think that this is going to resonate with Americans, because this is what people are talking about,” Flood said.
According to Flood, it will take a joint effort from federal, state and local governments to improve housing affordability. While affordability measures like boosting homebuilding efforts, removing tax barriers and lowering costs for things like mortgage insurance can be undertaken at the federal level, regulations including zoning restrictions are governed at the state and local level. This means that any meaningful change to improve housing affordability will require effort from all levels of government.
During the first nearly nine months of Trump’s second term, housing affordability has remained top of mind. On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order asking the heads of all executive departments and agencies “to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people.”
