MW More than 80% say affordability has not improved under Trump, exclusive YouGov-MarketWatch poll finds

By Venessa Wong

Americans say politicians in Washington aren't taking the cost of living seriously

Consumers named grocery prices, insurance, prescription drug prices, rent and saving to buy a house as their top affordability challenges, according to an exclusive YouGov-MarketWatch survey.

As President Donald Trump begins his second year in office, Americans are still struggling with the cost of living.

The president campaigned on assurances that he would solve affordability challenges in 2024, and he can tout his record on these issues in Tuesday's State of the Union address. Yet, in a YouGov survey conducted this month exclusively for MarketWatch, nearly 47% of survey takers said affordability has worsened somewhat or a lot over the past year. Meanwhile, 36% said it has stayed about the same, and nearly 18% said affordability has improved.

Consumers said grocery prices, insurance, prescription drug prices, rent, and saving to buy a home were the top affordability challenges. Of those who selected insurance, car insurance was the most common concern, followed by health insurance and homeowners' or renters' insurance.

The Trump administration has lowered taxes and negotiated Medicaid and Medicare drug prices; Trump has proposed a variety of other measures - ranging from a cap on credit-card interest rates to banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

Yet two-thirds of respondents in the YouGov-MarketWatch poll did not feel elected officials in Washington were taking affordability issues seriously.

Hopefully, "the message is finally breaking through to policymakers that affordability is the challenge of our time," said Catherine Harvey, a senior policy program manager in the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning research organization. Just as past policy choices have shaped the financial pressures consumers face today, future "policy choices can relieve some of those same pressures," she said.

Related: Here are Trump's affordability proposals - and where they stand

Asked who or what is most responsible for Americans' current affordability challenges, 41% of survey takers said the Trump administration was responsible, 40% said corporate greed, 22% said Republican lawmakers, 21% said the Biden administration and 20% said Democratic lawmakers (respondents could pick more than one response for this question).

"Trump policies will hamstring the economy's ability to supply goods and services, and these policies aim to increase inequality by transferring income from the bottom and middle toward the top," according to a new report by Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. This shift will happen through funding cuts for public services, including Affordable Care Act subsidies, and tax cuts favoring the rich, he wrote.

"Sometimes this affordability crunch will manifest as higher prices or faster inflation, but it is more likely to appear as slower wage growth and the rollback of public supports for households," Bivens wrote.

As for what would improve Americans' personal financial situations, respondents primarily said lower prices (38%), higher wages (19%) and lower taxes (12%) would do the most to help them, according to the YouGov-MarketWatch poll of 1,000 people.

People's earnings have gone up since the start of Trump's first term in 2017, but "not as fast as prices. And that's why people are feeling squeezed," Harvey said. In terms of public investments to relieve any of these issues, it will be important to measure what works so the government can "invest wisely."

More on this: Here are the ideas that could really help solve America's affordability crisis in 2026

As for what would improve Americans' personal financial situations, respondents primarily said lower prices (38%) and higher wages (19%).

White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to MarketWatch, "President Trump pledged to turn the page on Joe Biden's inflation and affordability crisis, and the Trump administration is embarking on an ambitious agenda of reform across every sector of our economy to deliver: from MFN [most favored nation] deals to lower drug prices to an energy abundance push to lower prices at the pump. This overarching agenda has already cooled inflation and cut prices of many household essentials, with more progress in store for the American people."

Nicole Huyer, a senior research associate at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in a recent opinion piece that Trump has implemented a variety of policies - "deregulation, tax cuts, cutting of unnecessary public workers and taxpayer-funded programs, and deportations" - intended to reduce costs, and called them "all steps in the right direction."

Many Americans, particularly those considered to be low or middle income, face serious challenges in today's economy.

The gap between high-income and middle- and low-income households has continued to widen since the pandemic, according to the Bank of America Institute. Last month, lower- and middle-income households' year-over-year spending growth ticked down to 0.3% and 1.0%, respectively, while higher-income households' spending growth was more stable at 2.5%, according to Bank of America credit- and debit-card data.

The number of Americans who say they don't have money left over after paying their bills rose 7 points to 48% between May and September 2025, according to Ipsos. Seven in 10 people polled by Ipsos said they were spending more on food at home and less on dining out and travel; nearly four in 10 have postponed a vacation or have delayed a big-ticket purchase such as an appliance, car or home renovation; and 30% delayed or skipped medical treatment due to cost.

As noted in an Urban Institute report, for many, "affordability" doesn't merely indicate an ability to spend on short-term needs and wants; it means being able to save for mid- and long-term financial goals as well. "Young people see today's affordability crisis as a barrier to their long-term wealth-building plans, including higher education and homeownership," stated the report.

For instance, high home prices and interest rates led the share of first-time home buyers to drop to a record low of 21%, while the typical age of first-time buyers reached an all-time high of 40 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Among the roughly one-fourth of preretirees who said last year that they are delaying retirement, 44% cited inflation as a reason.

Related: Who can actually buy a house today? Meet the 'elite' buyers achieving the American dream.

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-Venessa Wong

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February 24, 2026 11:37 ET (16:37 GMT)

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