WASHINGTON – Income hasn’t caught up with housing costs over the last two years for many people in Arizona and other electoral battlegrounds.

That affordability gap is weighing on voters in the midterms.

“Housing is one of the issues that really connects the economy directly to people's everyday lives,” said Alison Cook-Davis, research director at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Statewide surveys have shown housing costs are top of mind for Arizona voters, and candidates have sought to assure them they’ll do something about it.

A week before Election Day, Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, toured home manufacturers in Phoenix and Chandler with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner. 

In the press release, Crane vowed to “expand housing options for Arizonans.”

Turner posted on X that day, Oct. 26, that under President Donald Trump, “we’re supporting innovators to increase supply and help more families achieve the American Dream of homeownership.”

Turner appeared in Tucson the next day with another embattled incumbent, Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Tucson. They toured Gospel Rescue Mission, a faith-based homeless shelter, to discuss housing accessibility. 

“We see a common theme: costs are higher, making it more difficult for families to enter the marketplace,” Ciscomani said, according to his office.

Lisa Paffrath, president of Northern Arizona Association of Realtors, agreed that high housing costs are a major concern in Arizona.

“Since 2024 things have not gotten better,” she said. “We still have an issue with housing affordability, housing for (the) workforce – and that’s throughout the state.”

A statewide survey conducted in August by Arizona’s nonpartisan Citizens Clean Elections Commission found 71% of registered voters in Arizona care about candidates’ views on housing costs. That was more than any other issue besides road, bridge and utility infrastructure – including such topics as immigration enforcement and public safety. 

In a separate survey conducted in June and August by the Center for the Future of Arizona, just over half of Arizonans – regardless of party – said high housing costs prevent them from improving their finances.

“It really is both sides of the fence, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, hoping for a change in government because it has not gotten better in the last two years,” Paffrath said.

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage just before Election Day was 7.24%, up more than 1 percentage point from a year earlier. That spike makes homebuying more costly, which keeps some renters from making the jump – in turn, pushing up demand for rentals.

A poll released by the ASU Center for Latinas/os and American Politics Research and ASU Hispanic Research Center in September found that 63% of Arizona voters view housing costs and inventory as a serious problem.

Zachary Milne, director of policy and research at the conservative Common Sense Institute, a think tank, said that household sizes are growing faster than housing stock as people find it hard to move out of parents’ homes or start families.

“It correlates exactly with what we saw with prices, and I think in states like Arizona, that change may have been more pronounced,” Milne said.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, expanded the Arizona is Home downpayment assistance program last year.

Her challenger, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, has made housing affordability a top campaign priority, promising to reduce red tape to speed permits for new construction and to end Hobbs’ “anti-homebuilding policies.” 

In Congress, he has pushed legislation meant to deter people in the country illegally from owning a home, with the stated goal of reducing demand and driving down prices.

“If you want people to live the American dream, you have to make it so they can get into a home,” Biggs said Oct. 26 on the Mike Broomhead Show on KTAR.

Jay Feely, the GOP nominee to succeed Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, also blames Arizona’s housing shortage on lax border security. In a Sept. 7 interview on FOX 10 Phoenix, he echoed a claim previously made by Trump that 30% of the rise in home prices during the Biden administration stemmed from illegal immigration. 

“I’ll work to cut regulations and permit barriers to building more homes, making it easier to construct new housing, which increases supply, lowers cost and lowers rent,” Feely posted on X on Oct. 22. 

His Democratic rival, Amish Shah, has blamed Trump policies for increasing rents. He also promised voters to address housing affordability. 

“Over the last two years, we have seen how the Trump administration’s policies have hurt the people of Arizona,” he said on MSNow on Oct. 13. “Rents have gone up. Mortgages are high.”

“People have noticed, and they’re not happy,” he said.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.