When you think about what it takes to live a comfortable life in this country, people

often focus on the price of gas or food or health care, but there is one other

costs that feels like it's gotten more unbearable

for Americans lately, and that's the cost of housing.

Right now a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost.

So we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes. Housing is an issue that Vice President Kamala Harris is talking about a lot this election.

And so is former President Donald Trump's campaign.

Here's Trump's running mate, JD Vance.

Two things to lower the price of housing for Nevada's

is we've got to build more houses

and we've got to deport the illegal aliens so that American homes go to American citizens.

It's not something that we are used to hearing as a core part of a candidate's economic message or overall message in the first place.

Rachel Siegel covers the housing market for the post.

You don't necessarily think of housing as the kind of thing that a candidate leads with

when they're trying to connect with voters around the economy.

But I think it's a really telling example of how quickly the economy changed over the last couple of years and how we see

that filter into the kinds of issues voters are most animated about and interested in in these days

leading up to November.

Since 2019 home prices have risen by roughly 50% and the cost of renting surged during the pandemic.

And according to a Washington Post analysis,

many of the places where the housing affordability crisis is the worst

are in swing states like Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

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