---
title: Swing Voters Want More On Housing Affordability Than New Law Provides
description: A bipartisan survey of nearly 20,000 voters in swing states and districts finds Democrats and Republicans both want Congress to go further on housing.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-07-25T15:32:18.134Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/swing-voters-housing-affordability-survey-bipartisan
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/housing-affordability-bipartisan-survey-31295.webp
categories: Politics
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Bipartisan majorities of voters in the states and congressional districts that will decide the 2026 midterms want lawmakers to go further on housing than the law Congress already passed.

That is the finding of a survey of 19,564 adults across 11 competitive states and 28 competitive U.S. House districts, conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) at the University of Maryland with the Civic Innovation Center and Voice of the People. The survey tested public support for policy ideas beyond what the newly enacted housing law does, and found Democrats and Republicans in the same battleground places agreeing on several of them by wide margins.

The findings cover four areas: billions more in direct investment to build affordable housing, a new pot of rental assistance vouchers the current law does not include, a tougher restriction on corporate ownership of single-family homes, and tax incentives for builders. On each, majorities of both parties' voters in nearly every surveyed state and district back going further than lawmakers did.

## More Money For Affordable Housing Construction

The survey asked whether the government should spend an additional $40 billion to expand the supply of high-density affordable housing for very low- and low-income households. Nationally, 86% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans favored it, and support held up across the states and districts surveyed, ranging from 69% to 91% among Democrats and 52% to 81% among Republicans.

A second, related proposal would send $25 billion to local governments specifically for high-density affordable housing serving low- and middle-income households. That drew 84% support from Democrats and 63% from Republicans nationally, with ranges across the states and districts of 77% to 91% among Democrats and 58% to 77% among Republicans.

Voters also backed a proposal already in line with what the new housing bill does: tax incentives for home builders to construct or repair affordable homes. That had the broadest reach of any proposal tested, with 88% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans nationally in favor.

## Rental Assistance Vouchers Left Out Of The New Law

The clearest gap between what voters want and what the law provides is rental assistance. The survey tested a proposal for an additional $24 billion in rental vouchers for very-low-income, elderly and disabled people, a measure the new law does not include at all. Nationally, 89% of Democrats and 74% of Republicans favored it, with support ranging across the states and districts surveyed from 80% to 93% among Democrats and 58% to 83% among Republicans.

Steven Kull, PPC's director, said the pattern extends across the housing proposals tested.

> "While many of the proposals in the bipartisan legislation that just passed are consistent with the public's goals for housing, large majorities of Democrats and Republicans favor the government going much further in both investment and regulation."
> — Steven Kull, Director, Program for Public Consultation

## A Tougher Ban On Corporations Buying Single-Family Homes

The law that already caps large investors at [350 single-family homes](https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/whats-in-the-21st-century-road-to-housing-act/) still lets those same firms buy additional homes for rental use, so long as they agree to resell to individual owners within seven years. The survey tested a stricter alternative: banning all large-corporation ownership of single-family homes outright. That drew 82% support from Democrats and 77% from Republicans nationally, with ranges across the states and districts of 76% to 89% among Democrats and 64% to 86% among Republicans, making it one of the more consistently bipartisan findings in the survey.

The housing questions are the second release in PPC, CivIC and VOP's "Common Ground in the Battlegrounds?" series, which began with a survey on artificial intelligence and is running through the 2026 midterms. The series will eventually cover 15 topics and more than 100 policy questions, each chosen because it already draws bipartisan support nationally. The point of testing them state by state and district by district is to see whether that national agreement survives contact with the places where elections are actually decided.

The state and district surveys were fielded May 27 through June 25, 2026, with a minimum of 600 respondents per state and 400 per district, and response rates between 7.1% and 9.0%. Margins of error ranged from 2.9 to 7.6 percentage points depending on the sample. Respondents were drawn from opt-in panels, weighted to match each area's adult population by standard demographics, with partisan distributions checked or weighted against voter-registration data and the Cook Partisan Voting Index. PPC, CivIC and VOP describe themselves as nonpartisan and say they do not advocate for particular policies or candidates.

## FAQ

**Q: What does the new housing affordability law do?**
The law, enacted earlier this summer, streamlines federal environmental review for housing projects and lets HUD delegate that review to states and localities, funds a $200 million annual grant program for localities that measurably increase housing supply through zoning and permitting reform, eliminates a manufactured-housing requirement, raises the cap on bank investment in public-welfare projects, and bars large investors already owning at least 350 single-family homes from buying more, with an exception for rental homes they agree to resell to individual buyers within seven years.

**Q: Do Democrats and Republicans agree on housing policy?**
On the specific proposals tested in this survey, yes, at least among voters in the competitive states and districts surveyed. Nearly every proposal, from added investment in affordable housing construction to a full ban on corporate ownership of single-family homes, drew majority support from both Democrats and Republicans in almost all states and districts, though Democratic support ran higher on most items.

**Q: What is the "Common Ground in the Battlegrounds" survey series?**
It is an ongoing project from PPC, CivIC and VOP testing whether policy proposals that already have bipartisan support nationally hold up when surveyed specifically in competitive states and congressional districts. It began with a survey on artificial intelligence, this housing survey is the second release, and the series is set to cover 15 topics through the 2026 midterms.