Trump may announce national housing emergency — a first since 2008 financial crisis

US President Donald Trump may declare a national housing emergency in the coming days or weeks to address the housing crisis in the country, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

In an interview with Washington Examiner, Bessent said Trump may declare a national housing emergency this fall — the autumn season that generally spans from September to November. This would be the first national housing emergency since the burst of the housing bubble caused the 2008 financial crisis.

In his second term, Trump has declared 10 national emergencies for a variety of purposes ranging from imposing various types of tariffs, cracking down on immigration, punishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), and addressing purported surge of crime in the country.

The housing crisis has been there for at least two decades, driven by persistent shortage of housing. After the 2008 financial crisis, the home construction never recovered. The crisis was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic that saw rents skyrocket. The costs further rose as the interest rates were raised to tackle inflation. After the pandemic, the labour shortage meant there were fewer new homes. Some estimates say the United States has a shortage of up to 4 million homes.

Bessent bats for rate cuts to solve housing crisis

Bessent batted for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to make housing affordable.

Without going into the specifics of what Trump could do, Bessent told Examiner that rate cuts by the Federal Reserve would help alleviate skyrocketing post-Covid housing prices but acknowledged that the administration can do more to cut costs and boost supply for homeowners.

Bessent suggested that the Trump administration officials are directly studying ways to standardise local building and zoning codes and decrease closing costs. He even suggested that Trump may consider some tariff exemptions for certain construction materials.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can do, and we don’t want to step into the business of states, counties, and municipal governments. I think everything is on the table,” Bessent further said.

Sounding optimistic about the country’s economic trajectory, Bessent said that “we’re going to see a big economic pickup in 2026” — again without going into any specifics. At the moment, however, nearly all economic indicators are grim: the inflation is rising, recession odds are climbing, and jobs growth has tanked.

The Examiner reported that Trump is expected to make housing affordability a key issue ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections. Considering his unpopularity and historical trends where the president usually performs badly in first mid-term elections, there are expectations that the Republicans could suffer losses in those elections, perhaps even losing majority in one of the chambers.