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Housing in 2025 faces many challenges, and many continue each year. Affordable prices, high interest rates and shortages are problems that real estate agents face every day.
The creation of more affordable homes to buy or rent is a constant problem that requires a real, concrete solution. Newly confirmed HUD secretary Scott Turner has done an incredible job before him. Does he get to that job and what does his leadership look like for the real estate industry?
Turner grew up outside of Dallas, Texas, and according to an article in Propublica, he classified it as “a young child from a broken home in a poor family.” His parents’ relationship was “filled with violence, domestic violence, abuse and a lot of anger.” [and] alcohol. “”
He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on a football scholarship and continued to play professionally in the NFL with the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. From there, Turner moved into politics, interning for former Republican California national team Duncan Hunter, and after competing in the California Capitol in 2006, Turner returned to Texas.
He continued to pursue politics, and was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2012, where he served for four years. He is a motivational speaker and pastor at Preston Wood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. He also chaired President Trump’s think tank, America’s First Policy Institute.
According to Propublica, his views on housing were focused through his vote on issues relating to his time in the Texas Legislature. He voted against helping with the foreclosure prevention program, and opposed laws that would help public agencies replace or rehabilitate property (but he voted for a minor expansion of the bill two years later). .
According to the Houston Chronicle, Turner wanted to request drug tests for families applying for government assistance. He has supported several modest housing assistance, including legislation promoting housing developments for seniors and rural areas.
Propublica’s work noted that Turner did not introduce housing-related laws while he was representing the state.
Check the changes first
At Turner’s recent confirmation hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Bank, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Jan. 16, his position and details on solving housing issues have included many references to state and local engagement. Except, it appears to be contradictory and somewhat unclear. Housing Issues and US Government, review HUD policies and programs to see how less regulated.
Turner came across a passionate, friendly, likable, friendly and positive. He seemed open-minded, coming from a humble beginning, understanding the problems at hand. However, his answer to the question is common, with many “I’ll visit here” or “I’ll always look up or check that issue, policy, issue, etc.”
It’s good to understand the challenges ahead, but Turner needs to hit the ground running with a specific solution. Time is short and concrete ways to tackle housing challenges appear thin.
Except that HUD employees require that they return to the office as part of President Trump’s back-to-office duties against federal workers and commit to obtaining inventory of all HUD programs and policies. There were few practical ways of ideas proposed by him. To many ideas shared by the senators on the committee.
Below is a summary of his answers on various hot button housing issues. The full hearing can be seen on C-Span.
Corporate landlord
Turner appeared to be less informed than Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Sen. Elizabeth Warren wanted specific details on how to deal with business landlords and how many properties they own as they reduced their individual homeowner opportunities. Warren said five large investors own nearly 300,000 homes in 2022, and in Turner’s Texas, large investors bought 28% of all homes in the market. I did.
Turner’s response was that all of this accounted for just 2% of the housing market. His response was, “The more you can put it in the market, the more you can build a home.” There is no details about the capital, where it comes from, or where it comes from.
CDFI and Opportunity Zone
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) had a variety of ideas on how to create affordable housing. He looked more like an expert in this field than Turner himself. Warner will discuss the Community Development Funding Initiative (CDFI) that can serve underserved communities, revamp the Opportunity Zone Program with an emphasis on creating affordable housing and business development; We advertised these benefits.
Warner also mentioned placing data centers in low-income regions where tax revenue can be generated. This can be placed in a dedicated housing trust that can be used to acquire land to build affordable housing. In doing so, Warner said this would abandon many of the costs and regulations associated with the construction process.
He invited Turner to visit the Virginia community. Turner gave a general answer, but there were no concrete ideas to address everything Warner shared.
Homeless
Turner proposes engagement with communities and faith-based institutions that have brought real consequences regarding homelessness and have worked with them.
Housing Supply
When asked about the availability of housing, Turner said HUD failed its own basic mission and needed more housing options from apartments, homes, condominiums, townhomes and manufacturing homes. Ta. He also said he would review the manufactured home codes, reducing the hassle but not to get into details.
He believes that part of the housing supply problem is that HUD does not prioritize bringing employees back to the office and serving the American people to address these issues.
Housing expenses
Senator Warren and Tina Smith (D-MN) asked Turner how they could cut housing costs. He told Warren: “We have to sort out our finances.” In response to a direct question from Smith, he encouraged the area to review their zoning laws, but said that the government should not require the order to be made easier to make construction easier. .
At the same time, Sen. Katie Britt (R-NC) told Turner that he knew he was committed to relaxing restrictions, but encouraged him to see how that would be done. He said no details were mentioned as to whether this would be done.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) raised concerns about the placement of tariffs on wood and plaster and whether it would increase the cost of the home. Turner has postponed the tariff issue to President Trump, but he said he is committed to seeing everything that affects the costs of the housing.
Low-income community
He said he is committed to going out to reservations in various cities and India to see how he can provide housing opportunities.
Section 8 housing
Turner said he would review this housing program so he won’t punish you for getting married and your income increased as a result. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) said he did when asked whether government housing programs like Section 8 would support employment requirements.
Veteran Housing Issues and Homelessness
Turner said he is committed to supporting homeless veterans and all homeless people. He discusses how regulations can be reduced to increase veteran housing, and how veteran populations can help expand housing on top of veterans. I would like to cooperate with you.
Day
Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) raised the issue of DEI related to federal grant recipients under the Biden administration and whether it is something to continue. Turner did not believe that grant recipients should be related to DEI.
Crime rate
The bank also raised that under the Obama administration, real estate agents could not discuss crime rates with buyers and tenants when asked. The bank thought it was ridiculous and asked Turner what he thought. He agreed and thanked the senator for being alerted, and said he was committed to learning more, and would like to know about crime rates if he was buying or renting. . He said you need to be completely transparent with the tenant and buyer.
Climate standards
The bank discussed extreme climate standard requirements for affordable housing under the Biden administration, citing the resulting increased costs. He asked Turner if it was something he supports. Turner responded with anything to look at affordable homes.
Illegal immigration
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) has to provide housing for the homeless and those people, causing undocumented immigration and impacts on housing costs, and the overall cost of housing and lack of affordable prices. had an impact on the Turner agreed to see what illegal immigration can contribute to the overall climate of additional costs in this regard.
Sen. Reuben Gallego (D-AZ) asked Turner about ousting mixed-status families out of federal housing. Turner said American citizens should be put first, even if it requires some difficult decisions.
insurance
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) raised the issue of insurance and the issues that came up with it. That may be a need. That was more of a point for Turner and he didn’t add any information there. Brandt Rochester also nurtured insurance, and Turner admitted that it was a problem, saying he would investigate the issue.
Public housing
Moreno begged Turner to visit the Cleveland public housing project, and the conditions are so lamentable that we were by the United Nations for allowing illegal immigrants to live in this home, let alone American citizens. He said it would be approved. Moreno also said that there are people who are profiting from housing in substandard conditions, so that’s something that needs to be looked into too.
Rural Community
Turner was committed to ensuring that affordable housing and programs could be achieved to address repairs in rural communities.
There is no real solution to a long-standing problem
The hearing discussed issues that we had heard continuously from our members. Our clients and communities provide us daily as real estate agents. There are many topics and hot button issues that need attention, but there is no real solution other than reviewing all HUD programs and policies first.
He said the biggest problem the senators have continued to nurture are how to make housing more affordable, and they are repeatedly asked what they can do in this regard.
At this point, there seem to be more questions than the answer. Turner was doing monumental work before him, and it was clear that all these issues had to be speeded up faster than the term he was appointed to allow.
What can Turner actually achieve and implement? You have to wait and see. As facilitators and leaders of the American Dream of the community, we need to take an active role, be involved and hold our local, state and federal governments accountable for doing more in this field.
Cara Ameer is a bi-vision agent licensed in California and Florida along with Coldwell Banker. You can follow her on Facebook or X. Twitter.
