RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Housing affordability in Michigan is shaping up to be a major issue in the state’s upcoming Senate election which will see progressive Abdul El-Sayed face rival Republican Mike Rogers after winning the Democratic primary this week.
Like much of the Midwest, Michigan is considered a relatively affordable housing market. The median price of a typical home in the state was $293,956 in May, according to the latest Redfin data, lower than the national average of $398,771.
But even as homes remain much cheaper than in most of the country, Michiganders’ wages can hardly keep up. The median household income in the state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was $72,875 in 2024—the latest year for which data is available.
Stepping on the property ladder is difficult for Michiganders and many do not even get this opportunity, as more than half renters in the state (51 percent) are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to the 2024 Michigan Statewide Housing Needs Assessment.
With an estimated 1.1 million renting households in the state, that makes for more than 550,000 cost-burdened households.
El-Sayed, a former public health official, won the Democratic nomination after a campaign that focused on affordability, and putting the goal of lowering the cost of living front and center of his agenda. Rogers, a former law enforcement officer, has zeroed in on one issue: expanding homeownership in the state.
That makes housing affordability—a problem that is getting ever more pressing in the U.S. as millions have been squeezed to the sidelines of the market by rising costs since the pandemic—the issue that could decide the fate of one of the nation’s key swing states.
According to CNBC’s latest All-America Economic Survey, housing costs are the top political issue among voters aged 18 to 34—the same age cohort that has been largely cut off from the massive growth in equity enjoyed by homeowners since 2019 and which is now struggling to step onto the property ladder.
This same category has the potential to decide the results of the 2026 terms, as an estimated nearly 50 million Americans aged 18 to 29 will be eligible to vote in November, 8 million more than in 2024.
These are also the voters that both El-Sayed and Rogers know they have to court if they hope to win the November race.
In a recorded campaign message released in late July, El-Sayed told voters: "I believe you deserve a home. Too many Americans are priced out of the most basic necessity of shelter."
In a statement reported by the Michigan Advance in February, Rogers said that focusing on housing affordability was important for "families, young families, people who are getting out of college, or getting their skilled trade certificates and actually building things for a living."
He added: "We want everyone to participate in the American dream, and a big part of that American dream is buying a house and starting to create that equity growth that happens over a lifetime."
Newsweek contacted El-Sayed’s and Rogers’ campaigns for comment by email on Thursday.
El-Sayed has framed housing as part of a broader affordability and inequality challenge in the state, including offering property-tax relief to seniors struggling to remain in their homes due to rising bills.
Speaking at a polling place at Salina Intermediate School in Dearborn on Wednesday, he said: "People are sick and tired of not being able to afford their groceries or pay their rent or believe they could ever own a home."
This is something that all Democrats have in common, he added, as reported by Politico, responding to claims that he has managed to attract "normie" Democrats to his side. "Frankly, I think that’s true of Republicans, which is why I’m going to beat Mike Rogers by seven," he added.
One of El-Sayed’s goals is to offer property-tax relief to senior homeowners in the state. While Michigan’s property taxes have risen by just 2.6 percent over the past decade, MLive reported, total property tax collections have jumped from $13.5 billion in 2015 to $21.6 billion in 2025, based on data from the Michigan Treasury.
El-Sayed’s Aging Affordably in America (AAA) Plan would create a federal framework for state-level property tax freezes, among other things—building a strong social safety net for Michigan seniors.
"Michiganders deserve a future where retirement doesn’t mean anxiety and financial stress," El-Sayed said in a statement. "But as they privatize more of Medicare, strip down Social Security for parts, and make aging less affordable every year, we need big, structural changes. It’s time for an America where our seniors can age with dignity, and the Aging Affordably in America Plan does just that."
But El-Sayed has also directly addressed first-time buyers and renters. In the same recorded message published last month, he said Michigan needs "a building boom" to fix its housing affordability crisis and close the estimated gap of 119,000 units the Michigan State Housing Development Authority said the state currently has.
"To make that happen, we need to massively invest in building new housing in communities across the state, and to stand up against all of those unfair regulations that are making it way too hard to build affordable housing in America," he said.
El-Sayed has also vowed to ban large corporations from owning homes at all, blaming them for speculating on Michiganders’ housing stock; support federal legislation to ban algorithmic rental price-fixing software that allows corporate landlords "to collude to raise rent"; require Big Tech companies like Airbnb and VRBO to pay special housing dislocation fees for the housing stock they occupy in local communities; and fight unfair evictions from corporate landlords.
Rogers, who...
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