Democrats Will Focus on Affordability in 2027, Party Leaders Say

Democrats rode affordability anxieties to big wins in the midterm elections. But they must deliver on lowering costs if they want to sustain their political power, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Thursday.

Speaking at a Washington, DC, forum hosted by Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, Schumer reflected on the significant gains in Tuesday's midterm elections. Democrats were able to flip dozens of seats and gain control of both the House and Senate for the upcoming Congress.

Democrats spent the year attacking President Donald Trump on "costs, chaos, and corruption," as Schumer put it. But although many people voted for Democrats out of frustration with the Trump administration, that doesn't mean they're enthusiastic about the Democratic Party, he conceded.

"We highlighted how Trump's chaos agenda was causing Americans pain at the grocery store, at the gas pump," Schumer said. "Every month in the spring, we focused on the costs of the American people and what we were going to do about it."

Vice President JD Vance has also said that the conflict in Iran and subsequent inflation surge cost Republicans the election. Schumer said Democrats have to bring down costs. Ending the Iran conflict and stopping the tariffs policies that have driven up costs in the country are two ways to do that.

Although Democrats made major gains, they still won't have enough votes to override a Trump veto. And Democratic leadership will have to find common ground with the party's left flank after a wave of Democratic Socialist candidates won elections on Tuesday, a fact Schumer acknowledged without mentioning the group by name.

"Unity means linking arms with people you will not agree with on every issue so you can make progress on the more important areas where you agree," Schumer said. "Intra-party debate isn't a sign of weakness."

Wealth of ideas

Democrats who won state and local races have promised affordability-minded reforms and emphasized housing production. That's crucial in expensive areas such as California and Washington DC.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said at the CAP event that medical and student debt are also issues Democrats should tackle at the federal level. These debts significantly delay homeownership. But he said both oversight and affordability should be Congress' main focus next year.

"You can walk and chew gum, we have to deal with affordability, that has to be the principal thing," Pritzer said. "But we have to have oversight committees, just like the Republicans did."

On Wednesday, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is likely to become the new speaker of the House, said the House Democratic Caucus will convene next week and lay out an agenda. But Democrats would focus on "affordability and accountability" with their new majority, he said.

Democrats after the election threw out a host of ideas for items to pursue in 2027 and 2028. Many of them focused on both affordability and guardrails for artificial intelligence and data centers.

"Top of the Democratic agenda on day 1 needs to be a pause on advanced AI development, regulation of this out of control industry, and a ban on artificial superintelligence," Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) posted to X on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq plunged 5% the next day, led by a sharp decline in tech stocks.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucuses with the Democrats, called for a national 5% wealth tax in a video message Thursday morning. Such a tax, as is being considered in California, could fund 7 million units of affordable housing, Sanders said.

Lost spending power

Realtor.com® economists quantified just how bad the affordability situation is for Americans.

In January, a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment supported a home price $28,500 higher than a year earlier. By October 2026, that same payment supported a home price $33,600 lower. The surge in interest rates, from 6.05% in February to 7.33% in October, was to blame for the $62,100 swing.

“Mortgage rates are not abstract to a family trying to buy a home,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “They show up as the home they can no longer afford."

"The year-over-year comparison is a vivid measure of why housing affordability lands as a pocketbook issue for voters," Hale continues. "The conflict’s inflationary impact is one source of uncertainty, but households feel the consequences in their monthly budgets and in the homes they have to take off their list.”

In a post, National Association of Homebuilders Chief Advocacy Officer Ken Wingert urged the next Congress to craft more housing bills like the comprehensive 21st Century Road to Housing Act that passed this summer.

Lawmakers have suggested they have their own sets of ideas for new housing measures to pursue. Cities and localities, they have said, must also step up to implement new laws.

Those rules must assuage builders whose confidence has been shattered by high costs of building materials and high mortgage rates chasing homebuyers out of the market. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) fell to a 14-year low last month.

"With a national housing shortfall of roughly 1.2 million households, more must be done to let builders build—and voters agree," Wingert said. "Throughout the campaign, voters consistently cited housing availability and affordability as key factors in their decisions."