- [Maria] The American dream of owning a home, or even renting one is turning into a nightmare.

Home prices have jumped 47% since 2020 and half of all renters nationwide are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent according to the 2024 Harvard University Housing Study.

University of Michigan Associate Professor, Roshanak Mehdipanah, is a director of the Housing Solutions for Health Equity initiative.

- Housing has shifted from this idea of a basic human right to now becoming a commodity, right?

It's your investment.

It's no longer seen as this basic shelter that every human should have.

And so when you move into that investment territory, that's when things get more difficult.

- [Maria] And a 2024 Detroit Metro Area Community Study found the cost of housing is on voters' minds.

Mara Ostfeld is the University of Michigan faculty lead of the study.

She says that about 50% of Detroiters prioritize some element of housing costs as an issue that they want the government to address.

- When people say the economy, they're talking about housing.

When people say cost of living, they're talking about housing.

Even when people talk about schools, they're talking about housing.

It's one of those things that really permeates all of the policy issues that we see creeping up as a really big concern for Detroiters and Americans throughout the country.

- [Maria] Affordable housing is one of the top concerns for young people.

- We really saw this pop out among younger Detroiters, and this is consistent with national polls that younger Detroiters and younger Americans are far more concerned about the cost of housing, especially as they're entering into that phase of their life where they're starting to pay their own rent, or starting to put down payments on their own homes.

- [Maria] A 2024 Harvard Kennedy School Youth Poll found that 56% of people ages 18 to 29 nationwide say housing is more important than other issues in the United States today.

- Yes.

- [Maria] Mehdipanah says the reasons housing costs hit younger people harder are complex.

- And this can be attributed to multiple factors, including housing that is more expensive and many more hurdles or barriers for individuals to have to cross from credit scores, to having enough of a down payment and such.

And now we're at a time where interest rates are so high that it all makes it very difficult for younger folks to buy their first home.

- [Maria] Mehdipanah says, solutions include expanding eviction protection programs to protect renters facing financial hardship.

And also as that contractors are often not motivated to build affordable housing because of lower profit margins, government policies could change that.

- Cost of living is seen as something that's really dictated more heavily by federal policies than by local policies.

- [Maria] Addressing issues important to young voters may be especially important in a key swing state like Michigan.

- If we wanna see more young voters participate in the electoral process, then we need to pay more attention to the issues that they're saying are their top concerns.

And housing is clearly high-ranked among them.

Voters are looking for candidates to say they hear the concerns of the public and that they have a plan to address that.

- [Maria] Reporting from Ann Arbor, I'm Maria Witcher, a PBS News Student Reporting Labs Gwen Ifill Legacy Fellow.