A majority of Americans, regardless of political party, say the cost of housing is way too high.
According to a recent poll, three out of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans and Democrats, believe that to be the case. The price of housing has become a major talking point this election season with the presidential candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed offering first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down payment assistance but a lot of economists say that that will only drive up the price of a home even more.
Developers add that 95% of the limits, mandates, fees, permits and delays that slow down production and raise costs come from more local and state regulations and not federal.
Eason Maykus, President of Maykus Homes based in Grapevine, Texas, said he's hoping there will be some sort of strategies introduced that include a streamline of processes to build a house.
"Every municipality is different, every state is different, but some sort of guidelines would tremendously help," he said. "The streamlining of getting a house started and the building process saves money."
The average price of a new home in the state of California is $904,000, double the national average. In the Houston area, the average price of a home is around $266,000. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where Maykus is based, it's just north of $372,000, according to Zillow. Maykus also said that there is at least a 6,000 household shortfall in that area.
"I believe that it's a lot harder for people to get qualified, even if they're doing well," Maykus said.
However, Maykus believes the challenges people are seeing in the housing market today are not as bad as what the country saw between the years around 2006 and 2010.
"The fact that there's a shortage of housing, there's inflation costs and the materials and the housing prices have gone up, I think that all just piles on to the difficulty to provide housing to younger people who are trying to get into one," said Maykus.