As the housing industry prepares for 2026, Realtor.com is taking some time to double down on its Let America Build campaign. Initially launched in March 2025, the national campaign advocates for solutions to expand housing supply.
Realtor.com describes the campaign, which calls on lawmakers to make pro-building choices, as an effort to advocate for “solutions that cut through red tape, restrictive zoning and outdated regulations that are constricting the ability to build the homes America needs.”
In a letter penned by Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales addressed to his housing industry colleagues, Eales asked others to recommit themselves to a shared common goal of “fighting for access for the American homeowner” while aligning on the issue of housing supply.
“Ours is an industry built on problem solving. Yet, too often lately it has been beset by bickering. We have exhausted our energy debating the merits of Clear Cooperation and the demerits of private listings,” Eales wrote in the letter published on Monday.
“These debates, while legitimate, have become distractions from larger challenges, and while we argue over how to slice a shrinking pie, millions of Americans are starving for a slice of the American Dream.”
Eales acknowledged the plethora of legislative proposals devoted to improved housing affordability. These include some of the provisions in the ROAD to Housing Act and the More Homes on the Market Act, which focuses on changing the current capital gains tax exemption limits. But Eales also wrote that these plans primarily focus on the demand side and not the supply side of the equation.
“It is easier to promise cash than to pour concrete. But as housing industry leaders, we know that fueling demand without fixing supply only fans the flames of affordability. Supply is the solution,” Eales wrote.
In 2026, Eales said he and his team will take to the conference stage at SXSW in Austin to share their message that “homeownership is the engine of generational wealth. And to exclude the next generation isn’t just a missed sale, it is the cementing of a catastrophic and lasting economic divide.”
Eales added that while he has met — and will continue to meet — with federal legislators, he believes that many of the roadblocks to housing supply exist at the state and local levels.
“As brokers, agents, and MLS leaders, you are our civic chorus. And the media covering our industry, you have an opportunity to unite us to a common cause. Let us shift our energy from insular irrelevance to local leadership,” he wrote.
“Lobby for modernized zoning. Overcome NIMBYism. Advocate for the ‘missing middle.’ Let’s move our focus from policy paralysis to property production.”
Economists estimate that the U.S. is short by more 4 million housing units as inventory continues to remain below pre-pandemic levels in most markets.
While zoning is a local issue in most areas, federal lawmakers have introduced the Housing Supply Frameworks Act (H.R. 2840), which is focused on creating a national strategy for boosting housing production and affordability by reducing barriers to new housing development.
If passed, the bipartisan bill would provide communities with expert guidance, technical assistance and best practices to enable policy reforms designed to increase the housing supply across all price points.
The bill is supported by the National Association of Realtors, National Association of Home Builders, National Apartment Association, Habitat for Humanity and the American Planning Association.