Trump blames 'Too Late Powell' for the housing crisis—but top analysts say low rates 'snapped the trap shut' on Millennial and Gen Z homeowners in the first place

Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Credit: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg - Getty Images)

• ANALYSIS: President Trump blames Jerome Powell and the Fed for the housing downturn, but economists from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley say today’s high mortgage rates aren’t the Fed’s doing—it’s the legacy of keeping rates ultra-low for years after the financial crisis, which inflated home prices to unaffordable levels. Despite multiple Fed cuts, mortgage rates remain elevated. The spread between policy rates and mortgage offers is at a 40-year high because lenders are largely ignoring monetary policy amid tight housing supply, pandemic-era buying.

The White House is using the housing crisis as a stick with which to beat Fed chairman Jerome Powell. “Could somebody please inform Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell that he is hurting the housing industry, very badly?” the president wrote on Truth Social earlier this year. “People can’t get a mortgage because of him.”