Common Ground: The Bipartisan Push for Cost-of-Living Relief

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

What do you want, Mr. Hagen?

SPEAKER_2 (0:02)

I want my life back.

SPEAKER_1 (0:06)

On October 23rd, the procedure is causing troubling physical changes. What's happening to me?

SPEAKER_3 (0:12)

Look, fear.

SPEAKER_1 (0:13)

You have to learn to control it.

SPEAKER_4 (0:15)

In the face.

SPEAKER_1 (0:16)

I have no idea who you are anymore. Tell me who you want me to be.

SPEAKER_4 (0:25)

Cray face.

SPEAKER_1 (0:25)

Only appears October 23rd. We did all.

SPEAKER_4 (0:32)

Fox News Podcasts presents The Bret Baier Podcast with Fox News Chief Political Anchor, Bret Baier.

SPEAKER_5 (0:45)

To invest in the middle class, we can do that by expanding affordable housing.

SPEAKER_6 (0:49)

Look just at housing.

Home prices under Joe Biden's leadership doubled. Now rents are falling for the first time in 20 years under Donald Trump's.

SPEAKER_3 (0:58)

He's trying to change the rules of the game. Instead of actually working at what bothered people, the high cost of living.

SPEAKER_7 (1:05)

We also need to do more on housing, but I'm pleased to say that we did pass a comprehensive housing bill this year, the road to housing.

Bret Baier (1:18)

Housing and the cost of living, big topic on the campaign trail. In tonight's Common Ground segment, we'll look at the bipartisan push for housing reform, what has passed, what's yet to be done. Joining us two members of the House Financial Services Committee, Nebraska Republican Mike Flood and California Democrat Sam Liccardo. Thank you gentlemen for both being here.

Congressman Flood, let me start with you. It was seen as a win, the 21st Century Road to House Act, reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers to new home construction, enabling community banks to more freely deploy funding, expands local lending for housing and construction and mortgages. But clearly, you both believe there's much more to do.

Mike Flood (1:59)

Well, absolutely. JD Vance, when he was on the campaign trail, he said the number one issue for Americans ages 20 to 35, 38 was their inability to get a house. Now, that was just accepted as part of the American dream. When I was 25 years old, and we've seen extreme inflation since 2019, this bill really moves the process forward. No longer is a chassis required in a manufactured home.

The prefabricated homes of today are not the trailers of yesterday. So there's a lot more inexpensive quality inventory coming into the supply system that should lower costs.

Bret Baier (2:36)

Congressman Liccardo, the cost of housing is skyrocketing in part because of mortgage rates. If you look at the housing market, 30-year fixed, 7.4 percent. The medium home price now, 393,000. If you look at the average age of first-time home buyers now, it's now at a high of 40 years old. That's as of last year. And you can see it ticking up over the time, but it's at a high now, which seems to be a signal that there's more work to do.

Sam Liccardo (3:08)

Oh, much more work. And kudos to Mike for his leadership on the last housing package. I was proud to play a role, but we have much more work to do.

There are ideas that are bipartisan that are still out there, that I think we could get moving very soon. For example, Jimmy Pena has got a bipartisan bill that would double the exemption on the sale of homes, double the exemption on the capital gains tax that would be paid. So we can get more of those older homeowners, our parents, grandparents who are looking to sell, to be able to do so, to expand the supply of housing for these younger home buyers. That could significantly improve access to home ownership if we get more folks who feel locked into their homes to be able to sell and downsize.

Bret Baier (3:56)

To the congressman's point, cutting capital gains more, at a minimum, it could index for inflation. Something could change that would help move this forward.

Mike Flood (4:07)

I do support what Sam was talking about by doubling the exemption. There's a lot of folks on the Republican side of the aisle that want to do that too.

Ultimately, we have a bigger issue even than mortgage rates. A lot of Americans today are finding that their property taxes plus their home insurance premium in their escrow account, that number has grown larger than their principal and interest payments for their mortgage. And that's really tied to the increased cost in home insurance, which is crippling a lot of American families. And so there's a whole set of things that we can be looking at on how to better price that risk, make sure these overseas European-based reinsurers are charging us the same as they charge every other country in the world.