Blue Cities Dominate Affordable Housing Construction Surge

Affordable housing construction in the United States surged by 73 percent from 2020 to 2024 compared with the previous five years, according to RentCafe.

A construction site of a mixed-use apartment complex in Los Angeles on Aug. 20, 2024. Mario Tama/Getty Images

As housing affordability has become a central concern in the United States in recent years, the construction of affordable housing has risen sharply, according to a new analysis. Programs from both the federal and local governments helped support that development.

Affordable housing construction in the United States surged by 73 percent over the five years from 2020 to 2024, compared with the previous five-year period (2015–2019), outpacing the 36 percent growth in overall apartment construction, according to a new analysis by real estate technology platform RentCafe.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines housing as “affordable” when its costs, including utilities, amount to less than 30 percent of a family’s income.

In compiling the analysis, RentCafe analyzed data from 146 markets nationwide, including only “fully-affordable” buildings—those with at least 90 percent of units subject to income restrictions.

The analysis shows that from 2020 to 2024, the nation added nearly 310,000 new affordable apartments, with nearly a third completed in 2024, setting a record with 91,000 new rental units.

Meanwhile, affordable housing is accounting for a larger share of apartment construction. In 2024, nearly 14 percent of all new apartments were income-restricted—up from just under 9 percent 10 years earlier, RentCafe said.

Bipartisan Effort

A May 2025 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that there was a shortage of 7.1 million affordable rental homes for low-income families in the United States, noting that more than 70 percent of the “extremely” low-income renters were “severely cost-burdened.”

According to HUD, families paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent are considered cost-burdened, and those paying more than 50 percent are considered severely cost-burdened.

Both major parties are pushing for more affordable housing to lower the cost of living for Americans.

On Feb. 4, the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus—whose members are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans—unveiled an affordability agenda that includes housing as a key issue. The proposal aims to increase housing supply and expand access to affordable financing and rental options.

On July 24, 2025, Sens. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduced bipartisan legislation to address the housing shortage issue that Americans have been grappling with for several years, by making it faster and more efficient to rehabilitate existing buildings and start construction for new residential properties, as well as modernize regulations.

A September 2025 report from the Pew Research Center indicates that state legislatures enacted measures to improve the availability of affordable housing, with Texas, Washington, and Montana leading the way. These states and others were able to pass bills targeting several regulatory barriers to expanding housing, including parking requirements and building and zoning codes.

“For example, Texas’ Republican leadership advanced housing supply reforms with Democratic backing,” the report stated.

Arizona, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine are also among the states that permit more residential housing near jobs, transit, and commercial zones.

Blue Cities Dominate Top 20 Markets

According to RentCafe’s analysis, the top 20 markets accounted for more than half of the nearly 310,000 affordable apartments added over the five years ending in 2024.

Seattle ranked first with 14,290 completed units, followed closely by New York with 14,240. Austin placed third with 13,343 units, followed by Minneapolis–St. Paul with 10,722 and Atlanta with 10,486.

Other notable large metros on the Top 20 list include Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Portland, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, and Phoenix. All of these metros added between 5,000 and 9,000 new affordable apartments during the same period.

Among the top 20 metros with the largest increases in new affordable housing, San Antonio ranked first, with a 223 percent increase in completed apartments over the previous five-year period. The Texas metro added 9,000 new housing units between 2020 and 2024.

Phoenix experienced a 206 percent surge, while Charlotte’s affordable units grew by 191 percent. New York added 14,000 units during the same time period, increasing its affordable apartment building by 185 percent.

Additional fast-growing markets included Atlanta, Portland, Nashville, Austin, and San Francisco—all with increases over 100 percent.

The analysis shows that Dallas is the only Republican-controlled city on the company’s list of the top 20 markets that added the most new affordable apartments; the rest are led by Democratic mayors.

Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence for RentCafe’s parent firm, Yardi Matrix, told The Epoch Times that they rely strictly on the data.

The analysis noted that the “American Rescue Plan” directed billions of dollars into affordable housing construction through local fiscal recovery funds. Meanwhile, many states also encouraged the development of affordable rental units by introducing or expanding their own tax credit programs.

The plan, signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden, allocated $3 billion in supplemental funding to American communities and awarded 780 grants through six programs, including the Economic Adjustment Assistance program. This program funded various projects for infrastructure, workforce development, and economic development needs for communities.

Under the plan, state and local fiscal recovery funds assist developers in providing affordable housing through new construction or adaptable reuse projects.

Legislation permitting accessory dwelling units (ADUs) has also facilitated more affordable housing options. ADUs are self-contained, smaller residential units located on the same lot as an existing single-family home.

Blaz Korosec, founder and CFO of Investorade, agrees that improving restrictive local zoning policies is key to enabling more affordable housing construction. Based in Dallas, Investorade buys and sells property in all 50 states, from RV parks to residential homes to land.

“Left-leaning cities tend to have larger teams, target higher densities, and already have more robust housing authorities to shepherd projects to completion,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Right-leaning cities typically have less dense allowances but embrace private market players more. The issue is they often take longer to approve projects and diminish their own incentives.”

Korosec added that municipalities also need to upgrade regulations for qualifying tenants, income limits, and housing tax credits.

New York real estate analyst Jonathan Miller told The Epoch Times that the Top 20 city list may have more to do with population than politics.

“Most urban centers are more ‘blue,’ and often the surrounding suburbs are more ‘red,’ but I believe that has more to do with the density of the urban centers,” he said.

“Just the sheer number of people living in the cities is always going to be greater than the suburbs, so that one political group may tend to outweigh the other.”

Trump Administration Actions

Since the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump has focused on reducing housing costs for Americans and has proposed a range of measures.

On Jan. 7, he said he would take action ‘immediately’ to ban institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes and would call on Congress to enact the proposal.

“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing,” the president wrote in a Jan. 7 post on TruthSocial. “But now ... that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans.”

A recent Piedmont Crescent Capital report indicated that large institutions held approximately 1-3 percent of single-family homes and less than 5 percent of single-family rentals nationwide in 2025.

Though institutional purchases of homes are small overall, they are concentrated in specific areas and can significantly raise prices for potential homebuyers during periods of tight inventory, the report said.

Other proposals Trump and his team are considering include portable mortgages—allowing homeowners to transfer their existing mortgages, including interest rates and terms, to a new property—potentially avoiding penalties and saving thousands of dollars; 50-year mortgages; and opening federal land for homebuilding.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to reduce regulatory hurdles it says have constrained the housing supply, with HUD focusing on zoning rules and financing pathways as key areas of focus.

In his Jan. 21 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, HUD Secretary Scott Turner summarized the agency’s efforts to promote homeownership nationwide.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are fulfilling our mission of fostering strong communities by supporting access to quality, affordable housing, expanding the housing supply, and unlocking homeownership opportunities for the American people,” he said during the testimony.

Turner added that, as part of its campaign against overregulation, HUD eliminated the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, which had stripped certain zoning powers from local communities.

In a same-day post on X, Turner discussed the Modular Housing Protection Act, which would expand the availability of affordable, factory-built modular homes and direct HUD to identify barriers to federally backed financing for them.

Turner acknowledged that, historically, it has been difficult for individuals to obtain loans for modular housing and that HUD would continue to work with its partners to pave the way for such financing.

“The manufactured home industry will be a tremendous gap filler and opportunity for people as we attack this housing affordability issue in our country,” he said in the post.

Multi-Pronged Approach

While New York ranked high in the number of apartments added, Ressler noted that most of that housing was built in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, with very few in the priciest borough, Manhattan.

“Affordable housing development in New York City is not evenly distributed; it’s concentrated where the city has rezoned neighborhoods, invested public land, or targeted transit-rich areas,” he said.

“The Bronx consistently builds more affordable housing per capita than any other borough, driven by large rezonings, city-owned sites, and nonprofit developers.”

Miller agreed that adding affordable housing in high-priced areas such as Manhattan is more difficult.

“Without enough tax credits, these buildings are not possible due to the high cost of land, labor, and materials,” he said. “It’s a big challenge.”

According to the National Housing Crisis Task Force, the housing affordability crisis is affecting both homeowners and renters nationwide. It noted that since 2019, home prices in the United States have increased by 47 percent, and since 2012, the number of rental units priced below $1,000 per month has declined by 24 percent.

Led by a bipartisan group of co-chairs, including state and local government executives, the Task Force focuses on land, construction, capital, regulation, policy, and government in its quest to create more affordable housing.

Working with local cities and states, it encourages municipalities to relax regulatory requirements, upgrade zoning around transit corridors, and shorten the time for permit approvals.

Miller believes that the lack of sufficient affordable housing is a national problem that needs to be solved.

“So many people who work within the metro areas can’t afford to live there, and that makes it more difficult for businesses to attract employees,” he said. “Ultimately, that can impede a municipality’s growth.”

More seriously, noted Miller, insufficient affordable housing can harm businesses and the economy overall.

“This challenge doesn’t have just one answer,” he said. “There has to be a multi-pronged approach to the solution with local governments and businesses working together.”

Ressler added that the bulk of the demand is among lower and middle-income groups.

“Service workers are often being priced out of both owning and renting a home, and this is a clear indication for government and business to help close the gap,” he said.