When young adults leave the district of Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) in search of affordable housing, parents sometimes follow their children out of the area. For Panetta, whose Northern California district has some of the priciest homes in America, this loss of families “takes the heart and soul out of the area.”
Panetta was a speaker last week at the National Association of REALTORS®’ Policy Forum, held on the closing day of 2026 Advocacy Week in Washington, D.C. The annual policy forum brings together leading industry voices and policymakers for candid conversations on the state of housing in America.
Not surprisingly, affordability was the key focus of this year’s forum, with discussions centered on ways to support first-time home buyers, increase affordable housing supply and incentivize home sales.
Addressing High Costs, Red Tape
Panetta talked with NAR Vice President of Government Advocacy Joe Harris about an NAR-supported bill that would boost home sales by raising the capital gains exemption on home-sale profits. Panetta’s bill, the More Homes on the Market Act, would double the exemption, which hasn’t changed since 1997. NAR has been sounding the alarm on the outdated exemption limit, saying it discourages sales by owners, particularly those in high-cost areas, who want to sell but fear the tax liability. The exemption hasn’t increased since 1997.
“NAR’s research shows nearly 29 million homeowners [34% of current homeowners] already face potential capital gains taxes if they sell, and that number is expected to climb sharply over the next decade,” NAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn said in previous statement.
Following Panetta’s remarks, McGahn was joined on stage by Frank Cassidy. Cassidy is federal housing commissioner, overseeing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Cassidy said his experience as a first-time home buyer in college introduced him to the importance of FHA and the benefits of homeownership. He also addressed a perennial concern with FHA loan products—the timeline for processing those loans—saying FHA is working to remove red tape and speed up the process for home buyers at this key entry point to homeownership.
Dreams Delayed
In a panel moderated by Katy O’Donnell of Bloomberg, a group of policy and economic experts discussed recently published NAR research showing that the median age of first-time home buyers has reached a historical high—40 years. The research also shows that delaying homeownership from 30 to 40 years old results in roughly $150,000 in lost equity.
Real estate agents who are REALTORS® play an important role in educating their clients and the public about resources available to first-time home buyers.
REALTOR® Harrison Beacher, managing partner of Coalition Properties Group in Washington, D.C., talked about his role as an adviser in the homebuying process and how that experience comes into play as he analyzes various proposals to support first-time home buyers. For example, he said, the Trump administration's proposal to expand the use of 401(k) funds as a source of down payments could be a useful tool for some. For others, it may involve financial risks.
Bipartisan Opposition to Rent Control
The forum closed with two panels focused on solutions for affordability and supply.
Rebecca Picciotto of The Wall Street Journal moderated a discussion with the co-chairs of the Housing Solutions Coalition, former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and former Congressman Steve Stivers of Ohio. The coalition aims to “promote workable solutions to the current housing crisis, guided by the belief that every American should have fair access to quality housing that they can afford.”
Fudge and Stivers share an opposition to rent control policies, saying such measures do not address the core issue of housing availability and, in some cases, prevent the people who need affordable housing the most from accessing it.
The co-chairs also discussed the need for collaboration among federal, state and local governments and the private sector to increase housing supply.
Parsing the Pros and Cons of Policy Proposals
Any exploration of solutions requires consideration of pros and cons. For the final panel of the day, O’Donnell moderated a lively discussion on immediate and long-term solutions to affordability. Panelists expressed varying levels of skepticism regarding some of the policy solutions being floated to address affordability.
Arthur Gailes, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, described policies to block institutional investors as marginal. Proposals to open up building on public lands near metropolitan areas could have a much larger impact, Gailes said, increasing the national housing stock by millions of units.
Panelist Pam Perry said financing options such as expanding assumable mortgages sound promising. But the impact would be minimal. That’s because many first-time home buyers can’t afford to buy out the equity that the home seller has accrued over time, said Perry, senior vice president of financial opportunity with Navy Federal Credit Union.
Returning to the topic of capital gains taxes, Jim Parrott, a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute, expressed concern about the budgetary implications of doubling the exemption. Parrot said, however, he supported a targeted approach that would incentivize older Americans to sell their homes by reducing their capital gains liability at the time of sale.
NAR’s Policy Forum will reconvene at next year’s Advocacy Week, which takes place Jan. 27–29, 2027, in Washington.
