Trump is demanding the Fed cut rates and I think it would be the worst thing that could happen in housing in America right now. Housing starts just came in at 1.239 million against an expectation of 1.35 million. We are short somewhere between 3 million and 7 million homes depending on which *expert* you trust. The construction labor force is aging out. Permitting timelines are getting longer and more difficult in many areas. Material costs remain elevated and the physical capacity to build homes in this country is not keeping up. Lower rates do not create a single new home, just more captive buyers. What happens when you flood demand into a market that physically cannot build fast enough? Prices go up! The bidding wars return (i.e San Francisco). First time homebuyers get priced out again by investors and move up buyers with more equity and better credit. We saw this movie in 2020 and 2021. The Fed dropped rates to near zero and home prices exploded by 40%+ in some areas in 2 years! Homeownership rates barely moved and the people that were supposed to benefit from cheap money got outbid by the people who already had money. The supply problem is a four legged stool: construction, zoning, labor, and permitting... and it's happening all at once. Not a single one of these things gets solved by making money cheaper. However, they do get solved by making it easier and faster to build. Personally, I want lower rates as much as anyone. Every one of my personal real estate projects would pencil better with cheaper debt. But cutting rates without fixing the supply side just sends more buyers into a market that cannot already keep up.