(NewsNation) — Monthly housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Now, homebuyers in the states that will decide the upcoming presidential election are paying almost double what they were four years ago, according to new Redfin data.
The median monthly housing payment in battleground states has nearly doubled since the 2020 election, increasing 92% to an all-time high of $2,161.
Home prices in swing states are also up, rising nearly 40% since the last election to a record high of $316,063 in 2024, the report found.
Redfin’s analysis of housing and income data examined trends in red and blue states as well as seven swing states: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
Since 2020, housing costs have risen faster than incomes and that’s made the typical swing-state home unaffordable for the average family. These days a swing-state family has to earn $86,421 if they want to spend less than 30% of their income on payments for the median-priced home, nearly double the $45,140 they needed to earn in 2020.
That shift could have a major impact on the upcoming election as voters continue to think about which candidate will improve their standard of living.
“Voters in swing states care about housing affordability because soaring home prices and mortgage rates, along with a shortage of homes for sale, have made homeownership feel impossible for some Americans,” Redfin senior economist Elijah De La Campa said in a statement.
Recent polling suggests swing state voters prefer former president Donald Trump over President Joe Biden when it comes to the economy but on housing specifically, the two are essentially tied.
As for red and blue states, the Redfin report shows housing costs have surged in both. The median housing payment in red states is $2,066, up 95% since 2020. In blue states, monthly payments are even higher ($3,311) though they haven’t risen as much (83%).
Even so, red states like Texas and Florida have shown more willingness to build and are adding more new homes than anywhere else in the country, outpacing more populated states like California.
In March, Biden unveiled a series of proposals aimed at making housing more affordable, including a plan to build over two million homes.
The president has also called on Congress to pass legislation that would bar corporate landlords who raise rent more than 5% a year from certain tax advantages, though homebuilders warn that could discourage developers from building new units and hamper inventory further.
Meanwhile, the GOP’s 2024 platform, vows to make housing more affordable by opening “limited portions of Federal Lands to allow for new home construction,” promoting homeownership through tax incentives and cutting “unnecessary regulations that raise housing costs.”
Both Trump and Biden have hiked tariffs on lumber, steel and other building materials that have helped drive up housing costs.
Housing affordability was also an issue when Trump and Biden faced off in 2020. During Trump’s time in office, from 2016 to 2020, the median home price in swing states shot up 40%, Redfin noted. However, part of that was because the pandemic housing boom had already started.
