Both presidential candidates claim they can fix the housing affordability problem that is frustrating millions of Americans. Unfortunately, neither candidate’s proposals would increase the supply of affordable homes—and Vice President Kamala Harris’s plan would make matters worse.

The median sales price of all the homes sold in the United States was more than $412,000 at the end of July, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis—an increase of $90,000, or about 28 percent, from the same time in 2019.

Meanwhile, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, which remained below 5 percent for the decade of 2010s, now average 6.2 percent, after dropping below 3 percent during the pandemic. The increase in home prices, coupled with the higher interest rates, have priced millions of would-be home buyers out of the market.

The nationwide surge in home prices and the rise in mortgage rates are both related to increased inflation brought on by the recent surge in federal spending and the Federal Reserve’s expansionary monetary policy (that is, increasing the money supply without a corresponding increase in economic growth) to accommodate it.