Trump Urges Homebuilders To Boost Construction and Stop ‘Sitting on Empty Lots’

President Donald Trump has called on homebuilders to boost construction of new homes and bring prices down, suggesting that some large builders are limiting production to keep home prices elevated.

In a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday night, Trump compared large homebuilders to the OPEC cartel of oil-producing nations, which restricts production in order to manipulate global oil prices.

"Before I became President, “OPEC” kept Oil prices high. It wasn’t right for them to do that but, in a different form, is being done again — This time by the Big Homebuilders of our Nation," wrote Trump.

He continued: "They’re my friends, and they’re very important to the SUCCESS of our Country, but now, they can get Financing, and they have to start building Homes. They’re sitting on 2 Million empty lots, A RECORD."

"I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get Big Homebuilders going and, by so doing, help restore the American Dream!" Trump concluded.

In taking aim at "big homebuilders," Trump's comments suggest he is floating a new strategy to deliver on his campaign vow to improve home affordability, after months of pressuring the Federal Reserve to deliver lower interest rates.

Trump turns focus to housing shortage

Large, publicly traded homebuilders including DR Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup now account for more than half of new homes sold in the U.S., and encouraging them to step up production could help address the nation's housing shortage, says Realtor.com® Senior Economist Jake Krimmel.

"New construction is the only way to solve the housing shortage," says Krimmel, noting that recent research from Realtor.com found the housing supply gap is most severe in the Northeast. "Encouraging new home production in such high-demand and undersupplied markets is the most efficient and effective solution to the supply shortage."

However, Krimmel questioned Trump's claim that homebuilders are somehow colluding to keep prices high, which could be a violation of federal anti-trust laws.

"While the president is correct that the U.S. housing shortage is keeping home prices high, the manmade cause of this shortage is local zoning regulations, not OPEC-style collusion among homebuilders to artificially restrict supply," he said.

Instead, local restrictions on new construction are often combined with excessive red tape in permitting to prevent new housing from being built, or to complicate and delay construction, making it prohibitively expensive for developers, says Krimmel.

Although Trump did not specify how government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could help spur more homebuilding, the two entities do back products that finance construction, and set rules for mortgages on new-construction homes that could potentially be tweaked or streamlined.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who is also the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said in a post on X that he was "meeting individually with each of the home builders."

"The President has asked that we look at getting the Builders going, again, in our country, and we will do just that at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," wrote Pulte, whose grandfather founded the third largest U.S. homebuilder, PulteGroup.

Homebuilders respond to Trump's comments

National Association of Homebuilders Chairman Buddy Hughes told Realtor.com in a statement that the trade group welcomed Trump's focus on boosting home production to improve affordability.

“President Trump is right to focus on housing affordability, and NAHB agrees that getting more homes built is essential to restoring the American Dream," he said. "Achieving that goal will require builders of all sizes working together with the administration to overcome the complex government barriers that slow the pace of new construction."

“NAHB stands ready to partner with the administration and Congress to remove regulatory obstacles, ease building material and labor shortages and expand access to affordable financing to enable builders to construct more attainable, affordable housing,” added Hughes.

Although the market for home construction is fairly fragmented, large, publicly traded homebuilders have been steadily gaining market share in recent decades, accounting for 51% of new home closings in 2023, up from 25% in 2005, according to market research firm Zonda.

And homebuilder lot supply has been rising this year as builders pull back on construction, with lot supply hitting a five-year high in the second quarter of 2025, according to Zonda.

“While builders had planned to increase housing starts in 2025, they slowed production as the year progressed due to choppy consumer demand and rising resale supply," says Zonda Chief Economist Ali Wolf.

In the first half of 2025, permitting activity for new homes slumped to a five year low, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Builders have pulled back on new projects due to weak sales, with many builders forced to cut prices and boost incentives to move completed units.

This slower pace of construction contributed to a 21% annual increase in lot supply in the second quarter, as fewer lots were converted into starts, according to Zonda's tracking.

"While lot supply may be rising, it signals developers believe construction would be unprofitable, not a collusive agreement to choke supply," says the economist Krimmel.