New analysis of housing and demographic data in counties that President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton each won in 2016 looks at how politics play out in real estate.
The cost of homes, the number of homes being built, the credit scores required to secure financing for a home's purchase all vary by political persuasion, says Realtor.com's report. Mark Muro, senior fellow in the metropolitan policy program at D.C. think tank Brookings Institution, says, "Not only are people living in different political realities, but they're contending with very different housing realities and paying different amounts for it."
The suburbs remain the country's battleground. "You're seeing the Democrats become more and more of an urban party and the Republicans become more of a rural or exurban party," says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, a newsletter from the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "As you get farther out from the city, it gets more Republican." At the same time, more liberal-leaning Americans are moving to red, Southern states such as Texas and the Carolinas, lured by their warmer weather, affordable housing, lower taxes, and good jobs. It's why most demographers predict a major shift in the political breakdown of the U.S. in coming years.
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