In a Nov. 13 interview on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show, Vice President JD Vance argued that Biden-era immigration policies, combined with a persistent housing shortage, have driven up housing prices and made it harder for young Americans to buy homes.
“A lot of young people are saying, ‘Housing is way too expensive.’ Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who are taking houses that ought, by right, go to American citizens,” Vance said, referencing the open border policies of former President Joe Biden.
“And at the same time,” he continued, “we weren’t building enough new houses to begin with, even with the population we had.”
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time home buyers reached a record of 40 years old in 2025. The median home price now stands at $410,800 — more than 25% higher than in 2019.
To lower housing costs, the Trump administration is working to make it “easier to build houses” and to remove illegal immigrants, Vance said. He argued that Americans can already see improvements.
“Under the Biden administration, the price of a new home literally doubled in four years,” he said. “It went up 100%. Under the Trump administration, housing and rent prices are up about 1% to 2%. That’s actually in line with what you would like to see.”
Vance noted that the U.S. “probably need[s] to build about 5 million new homes” and suggested new technology could help construction workers speed up production.
“No robot can replace a great blue-collar construction worker,” Vance said, “but can a robot maybe make it easier for a construction worker to put more nails in more walls over a shorter period of time, some of the rote things?”
He said robotics will “help the construction workers, and I think that’s going to lead to higher wages, and it’s also going to lead to more homes for American citizens.”
During the same exchange, Vance addressed concerns about the affordability crisis he said is especially affecting young Americans.
“The most important way to fix the affordability crisis is to make people’s wages go up,” Vance said.
He added that the Trump economy “objectively is doing better than any economy in 50 or 60 years,” despite inheriting “this terrible inflation crisis from the Biden administration.”
While Vance acknowledged that many Americans still feel the squeeze of high prices, he said declining costs for eggs, energy, and gasoline are early signs of relief. He also highlighted recent corporate investment, saying the administration is seeing “trillions upon trillions of new investments” that he described as “career-creating jobs.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Vance discussed the recent 43-day government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12. He argued that many Democrats voted against the original Republican-backed funding bill because they faced pressure from their party’s left flank.
“Privately, the Democrats would recognize the position of their far left was crazy. But they all feel a little bit like they are being held hostage by their far left,” he said.
He claimed progressive Democrats demanded “health care benefits for illegal aliens, and unless you do that, we are going to make it impossible for you to fly home to see your family on Thanksgiving,” a remark that appeared to reference the shutdown’s severe disruption to air travel.
“It’s just craziness that that was ever their position,” Vance added, “but it was.”
As CatholicVote has reported, throughout the impasse, Republican lawmakers argued that Democrats repeatedly opposed a clean funding bill because they were pushing for roughly $200 billion over the next decade to expand healthcare for illegal immigrants and other noncitizens. The final legislation that both parties ultimately approved included no such funding.
When Hannity asked what Vance has learned from President Donald Trump, Vance praised the President’s leadership style.
Trump, he said, is “amazing at compartmentalizing things” and has “better instincts about human beings than anybody I’ve ever met.”
Pressed on whether he is eyeing a 2028 presidential run, Vance said his focus remains on helping Republicans win next year’s midterms.
“My attitude, Sean is, look, if we do a good job, the politics will take care of itself,” he explained. “If we do a terrible job, the politics will take care of itself in the other direction, so I'm just going to focus on the job that I have.”