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The Trump administration is creating a task force to identify national public lands that could be suitable for building affordable housing. The task force will be jointly run by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While some national public land may be fit for building affordable housing, the task is easier said than done. According to the Wall Street Journal, only a small portion of national public land is near cities with housing shortages—only about 7.3 percent of all national public land falls within metropolitan areas that need more homes. Most national public land is in remote areas that would require disrupting wildlife habitats and building entire infrastructure systems from scratch in order to build new housing.
Land availability is only a small part of the equation. Even in states like Nevada where there are viable public lands near existing infrastructure, financing and zoning remain issues. In order for new housing to remain affordable, funds would need to come from sources such as federal allocations or local taxes, like a progressive real estate transfer tax on luxury property sales. Local governments would also need to get rid of exclusionary zoning that limits the density of housing developments.
The affordability of new housing is also in question due to increases in the cost of building supplies as a result of the Trump administration's tariffs. According to the National Association of Home Builders, tariffs are projected to raise the costs that go into building a single-family home in the U.S. by $7,500 to $10,000.
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