() President Donald Trump is pointing the finger at homebuilders when it comes to a national housing shortage.

The president says that builders are sitting on two million empty lots and wants companies to ramp up construction.

Trump has compared homebuilders to OPEC keeping oil prices high.

“They’re my friends. They’re very important to the success of our country but now that they can get financing, they have to start building homes,” Trump wrote on social media. “I’m asking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get home builders going, and by doing so, help restore the American dream.”

Housing affordability was a top issue in the 2024 election, and Trump came into office promising to tackle it.

On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that directed federal agencies to deliver emergency pricing relief to lower housing costs and increase housing supply.

The most recent data available shows the supply of housing in the U.S. actually exceeds the demand for it, according to real estate company Refin. In August, the number of homes for sale actually rose 10.6% while the number of homes sold fell 2.6% compared to the same time last year.

One factor that could that could be driving that trend is cost. Redfin also found home prices were up by 1.5%, and that’s backed up by data from the census as well.

That shows the average price of a new home is more than half a million dollars as of August, and that’s up from the beginning of the year.

It’s unclear what Trump expects Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both mortgage companies, to do to incentivize homebuilders.

The National Association of Home Builders says regulatory obstacles with the government and the shortage of both labor and construction materials are hurdles to increasing construction.

“President Trump is right to focus on housing affordability and the NAHB agrees that getting more homes built is essential to restoring the American dream. Achieving that goal will require builders of all sizes, working with the administration, to overcome the complex government barriers that slow down the pace of new construction, and we have heard a lot of concerns from the housing industry that President Trump’s policies on things like tariffs and immigration might drive up prices for both construction materials and the labor used to build homes,” the organization said in a statement.