Boomers win again: Trump wants to drive US house prices up for homeowners, block Americans who don’t ‘work very hard’ from buying. Make this move now

Rather than letting prices drop, Trump’s approach to affordability seems to center on borrowing costs.

“We're going to make it easier to buy, we're going to get interest rates down,” he added.

As part of that effort, Trump recently ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move aimed at easing mortgage rates.

He has also announced plans to ban “large institutional investors” from buying single-family homes, framing the proposal as a way to preserve the “American Dream” of homeownership.

Reducing competition from deep-pocketed institutions could help some buyers at the margin. But Trump is now explicit that falling home prices are not the goal — far from it.

“There's so much talk about, 'Oh, we're going to drive housing prices down,’” he said. “I don't want to drive housing prices down, I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes and they can be assured that's what's going to happen.”

For would-be buyers, especially first-timers, that stance could further complicate an already strained market. Despite a recent cooldown, U.S. home prices remain dramatically higher than a decade ago, with the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index up more than 87% over that period (2).

According to the National Association of Realtors, the share of first-time buyers in the U.S. has fallen to a record low of 21% (3). Many younger Americans appear increasingly priced out, with the median age of a first-time buyer now at 40, an all-time high.

Meanwhile, repeat buyers have a median age of 62 — also an all-time high — and roughly 30% paid all cash for their homes.

For many Americans shut out of the market, the issue may have less to do with “didn’t work very hard” and more to do with how incomes stack up against home prices. Realtor.com estimates that a typical U.S. household now needs to earn about $118,530 a year to afford a median-priced home of $402,500 — more than 50% above the median household income of roughly $77,700 (4).

The good news? These days, you don’t need to buy a home outright to start building wealth with real estate.

Become a real estate mogul — starting with $100

While elevated home prices — combined with high mortgage rates — have made home affordability a pressing issue, crowdfunding platforms like Arrived have made it easier than ever for everyday investors to gain exposure to America’s real estate market.

Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived allows you to invest in shares of rental homes with as little as $100, all without the hassle of mowing lawns, fixing leaky faucets or handling difficult tenants.

The process is simple: Browse a curated selection of homes that have been vetted for their appreciation and income potential. Once you find a property you like, select the number of shares you’d like to purchase and then sit back as you start receiving any positive rental income distributions from your investment.

Invest alongside a $12B AUM real estate owner

Owning a rental property sounds great — until something goes wrong. One bounced check and your rental income disappears.

But institutional investors don’t face that problem. Their portfolios are diversified across hundreds — sometimes thousands — of units.

Now, accredited investors can tap into that same approach through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, giving you access to institutional-quality multifamily and industrial real estate — with a minimum investment of $100,000.

Founded in 1986 by David Lichtenstein, Lightstone Group is one of the largest privately held real estate investment firms in the U.S., with more than $12 billion in assets under management.

Over nearly-four decades, their team has delivered strong, risk-adjusted performance across multiple market cycles — including a 27.6% historical net IRR and a 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004.