Professor Brian Connolly Comments on Survey That Finds Rare Bipartisan Agreement on Housing Issues Among U.S. Voters

April’s Michigan Ross-Financial Times poll finds neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a clear advantage on housing affordability.

Brian Connolly, assistant professor of business law, notes housing remains one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement—reflecting a consensus that housing costs are a problem and the U.S. must make it easier to build needed housing.

He offers insights on what he describes as a “unique dataset and perspective,” as he’s seen little polling on housing and the election generally.

• “Housing is a pocketbook issue. By a wide margin, people are more concerned about their ability to afford housing where they want to live, rather than other problems associated with unaffordable housing, like housing’s impact on economic growth, the ability of essential workers to live in their communities, racial and income segregation, or environmental sustainability.”
   
• “Costs are a concern across the income spectrum. A full 60% of poll respondents earning more than $100,000 per year ranked their own ability to afford housing as one of their two-three concerns—remarkable given their high incomes—and it demonstrates the housing crisis poses problems far beyond low-income households.”
   
• “Perhaps understandably, older voters, who may have more stable, longer-term housing situations, are less concerned about their own ability to afford housing than are younger people. Older respondents also showed relatively greater concern about the impact of housing costs on national economic growth or the ability of essential workers to live in their communities than did younger people.”
   
• “Unsurprisingly, renters, whose housing expenses tend to be less predictable than those of homeowners, were far more concerned about their own ability to afford housing where they want to live, but 64% of homeowners ranked their own ability to afford housing where they want to live as a top-three concern and 35% ranked it as their top concern. These figures suggest a lot of homeowners either want to move somewhere else but can’t afford it or are cost-burdened in their current housing arrangement.”
   
• “Housing is viewed principally as an economic issue, rather than a social or environmental issue. While 71% of respondents ranked their own ability to afford housing as a chief concern and 57% of poll respondents ranked the effects of housing costs on national economic growth as one of their chief concerns, only 38% of respondents ranked housing costs’ effects on environmental sustainability as a chief concern, and just 36% similarly ranked them on racial and income segregation. By a substantial margin, however, nonwhite respondents were more likely to rank housing costs’ effects on racial and income segregation and environmental sustainability as chief concerns.”
   
• “Concern about one’s own ability to afford housing was evenly distributed, with about 70% of Democrats, Republicans and independents ranking that issue among their top concerns. Republicans and independents were more likely to rank their family members’ and friends’ ability to afford housing near them as a top concern, and Republicans were more likely to rank housing costs’ effects on national economic growth as a top concern, whereas Democrats were more likely to rank housing costs’ effects on racial and income segregation and environmental sustainability as top concerns (although more than a quarter of GOP voters ranked these within their top-three concerns).”
   
• “Housing remains one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement, and poll results are consistent with what’s seen nationwide at the state and local levels. For instance, in recent years, the Democratic-controlled legislatures in California and Massachusetts and the Republican-controlled legislatures in Montana and Utah have adopted remarkably similar measures to ease regulatory constraints on housing construction—reflecting a broad consensus that costs are a problem and the U.S. must make it easier to build needed housing.”
   
• The FT-Michigan Ross Poll is conducted by Democratic polling firm Global Strategy Group and Republican polling firm North Star Opinion Research. It surveys an online sample of about 1,000 registered voters from a variety of socioeconomic groups across the country and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at 95% confidence level.