Seventy-eight percent of voters say it’s not a good time to buy a house.
That’s the throughline from a recent live taping of the Advocacy Scoop Podcast, where the National Association of Realtors’s (NAR) Patrick Newton and Shannon McGahn walked through results from a NAR-commissioned national poll of 800 voters nationwide with a margin of error of about 3.4%.
They asked broad affordability questions, then tested five policy ideas NAR has been advocating for.
What stands out is the swing in responses after voters are given details on the proposals.
What voters are saying about affordability right now
Shannon McGahn put the headline number in context:
“Depressing, but not surprising. We all know that affordability is the buzzword of 2026 on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Capitol coming from the White House. And this is why 78% of voters who we polled say it is not a good time to buy a house.”
She also spelled out what’s driving that view in plain terms.
“And the most often reasons mentioned are prices are too high, that there’s an affordability squeeze because other stuff they’re buying is just too expensive. There’s economic uncertainty. And the respondents specifically mentioned that there’s a lack of affordable inventory.”
Before you even get to policy, the emotional landscape is already set. People feel boxed in.
To keep the “why” clean for your next conversation or piece of content, here’s what voters pointed to most often:
- Prices are too high
- Everyday costs are squeezing budgets
- Economic uncertainty makes big decisions harder
- Affordable inventory feels scarce
The dream is still there, but so is the defeat
The most telling tension in the results is that belief in homeownership hasn’t collapsed, but Americans are less confident homeownership will ever be attainable for them.
Here are the stats that sit side by side in this poll.
- 85% say owning a home is part of the American dream, up from 79% in 2013
- 82% of respondents ages 18 to 34 say the same, up from 75% in 2013
- By party, 88% of Republicans, 83% of independents, and 82% of Democrats still tie homeownership to the American dream
- Yet 76% of non-homeowners say they will never be able to own a home
McGahn describes it as aspiration without a path.
“So, not giving up on that dream, but they’re just seeing that it’s insurmountable. And our job is to make sure that they understand what policies, what tools, what people are there to help make that a reality.”
The use of the word “insurmountable” suggests the barrier is psychological as well as financial for many. People stop planning when they stop believing.
The 9% problem, and why specific proposals change minds
One of the sharpest findings is how voters rate the federal government’s current impact on homebuying. Only 9% said current federal policies make it easier to buy a home.
McGahn argues that answer may reflect awareness as much as judgment, since this was not a survey designed to educate respondents midstream.
“It’s important to note that this is an omnibus poll where we’re going into these issues one by one, but we’re not going deep into these issues. This isn’t what they call a push pull where you’re like, well, if you knew that you had a program called the FHA that allows for a 3% down payment, would you think that federal government is doing more?”
Then comes the part that should make everyone in housing perk up.
When voters were shown the five housing proposals and asked again, 64% said those proposals would make homeownership more attainable.
McGahn framed that swing as the point of the whole exercise.
“So, after being told what those proposals are and seeing those numbers spike up, 64% of the respondents said yes, that they think that those are federal government policies that would make home ownership more attainable. That’s what we’re bringing to Capitol Hill right there.”
That 9% to 64% jump means people are not reacting well to the current environment, but they do respond to clear, concrete options.
The policy ideas voters backed most
When the conversation turned to the five proposals, support from respondents was strong, with results ranging from 67% to 84%.
McGahn summed up the messaging challenge and the opportunity in two sentences.
“Anything over 50 makes it seem bipartisan. The problem with that process is it is partisan in nature and these policies are not partisan.”
Here’s how the support shook out, using the language from the discussion.
- 84% support allowing prospective home buyers to save money tax-free to be used to purchase a home
- 71% support tax incentives that require building developers to provide affordable rentals to low-income households
- 71% support providing tax incentives to investors in the home rental market when they sell those homes to first-time buyers
- 76% support providing a one-time option to sell your home and pay no taxes on the profit
- 67% support increasing the amount that sellers can make in profit from the sale of their home before they have to pay taxes, described as doubling the capital gains exemption
There’s no guarantee any one of these proposals will become law. But the strong support means the public is more persuadable than the daily doomscroll makes it seem.
What NAR says comes next
Near the end of the episode, McGahn described how they plan to use the results, as both a messaging asset and a lobbying tool.
“We will be publicizing this. You guys are the first to hear of this, to tell our story because we know that good policy plus strong public opinion support equals good politics.
“And that is what folks, our lawmakers around the country want to hear that these proposals aren’t just good ideas, but they’re supported by voters, supported by homeowners and those who would like to become homeowners.”
She also argued that the poll supports a straightforward conclusion about what voters want from government.
“I immediately draw that this makes a fairer housing system that has support across the country that the American people still believe in home ownership. They just need to have the government meet them halfway.”
That’s the full arc of the conversation: the public still believes in the dream of homeownership, they doubt the path, and their answers change when policy is explained in plain language.
