White House, RNC Agree on Selling Land to Builders

(Dreamstime)

Strong bipartisan consensus has emerged on a possible solution to the nation’s rising home prices, as both the White House and the Republican National Committee are pushing for the federal government, which owns just over one-quarter of the land in the United States, to sell unused land to developers as a way to promote affordable housing, Politico reports.

“Imagine having a county where over 90 percent of the land can’t have housing despite many acres being appropriate for development, all because it’s federally managed,” Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, said in an interview. “The idea is a practical solution, and including it in the Republican platform is welcome news for Utahns struggling with housing affordability.”

Curtis, in conjunction with Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee, is introducing legislation that would allow the federal government to sell land to state and local governments in order to help create affordable housing.

The Biden administration will adopt a different strategy that zones in on “vacant and surplus federal lands that are within existing development zones and in metros that face shortages of affordable housing,” according to an aide who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity.

Last month, the White House issued a press release announcing various actions being taken to lower the cost of housing, including “Repurposing public land sustainably to enable as many as 15,000 additional affordable housing units to be built in Nevada,” where over 80% of the land is federally managed.

David Dworkin, the president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, told Politico that the proposal “makes a lot of sense — there is an enormous amount of federal land out there that is sitting empty or completely unutilized, and you could build a lot of affordable housing there if you’re smart about it.”

He added that “you need to actually understand how markets work and work with for-profit developers and recognize that you’re competing against all the other land and opportunity out there,” and noted, “You have to make it worth it to housing developers who are making decisions based on data.”