We are one week away from the Recall Joel Engardio election, which is motivated mostly by animus over the Great Highway closure, but also to some degree over the fact that Engardio supports upzoning the west side so that it can be more than just mostly single-family homes in the future. Yet despite that headwind, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie remains determined to upzone the west side so it's more than just mostly single-family homes.
The Trump Administration is signaling that it intends to attack the affordability crisis and chronic undersupply from multiple angles talking openly about declaring a national housing emergency, freeing up federal land, leaning on localities to permit faster and denser, trimming closing costs, exploring rate-transfer ideas, boosting construction capacity, revisiting mortgage product design (including multigenerational mortgages), lowering MBS spreads via capital and liquidity moves, and potentially releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship.
Several housing organizations, like the National Association of Home Builders and Mortgage Bankers Association, have expressed support for the legislation, arguing that it will open doors for homeowners and would-be homeowners to build generational wealth and equity. The move would also address the nation's housing supply crisis. Still, industry leaders caution that federal backing alone won't solve all the obstacles. Challenges around valuation, underwriting and builder capacity remain barriers to scaling ADUs into a widespread affordability solution.
Bozeman's median household income in 2023 was $79,903, and the owner-occupied housing unit rate was 44.6% between 2019 and 2023, indicating a high level of renter-occupied units.
