Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.) has a message for Illinois: if you want more housing, you have to stop making it so hard to build. On Sunday, in a post on X, Pritzker said, "We have to confront the rules that make it harder to build housing in Illinois."

Sharing a clip from his speech, Pritzker explained that outdated rules and restrictive local regulations can prevent builders from constructing "even modest housing" in communities across the state. He also pointed to restrictions that make it difficult for families to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which can provide additional living space for an aging parent or create smaller, flexible housing options.

"We cannot say that we want more housing and then leave in place all the rules that prevent people from building that housing," Pritzker said.

Supply And Affordability Go Hand In Hand

The Illinois governor argued that increasing housing supply must go hand in hand with addressing the underlying barriers that make housing difficult to build and afford. "We cannot say that we want more housing and then fail to address all the foundational elements that make it so difficult," he said.

He added, "We cannot say that we want more housing, but not provide Illinoisans with the support that they need to afford it."

The Affordability Crisis Is Getting Worse

Pritzker's comments land in the middle of a deepening affordability crunch. Last month, John Burns Research & Consulting reported that monthly mortgage payments on a median-priced resale home had surged 97% since January 2020, compared with 33% income growth and a 48% increase in home prices.

Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan analysts said high mortgage rates, limited supply and weak income growth had left the U.S. housing market effectively "frozen." Head of Securitized Products Research John Sim said buying a median-priced home cost renters roughly 50% of median income, while about 75% of existing borrowers had mortgage rates below 5%.

He also pointed to a housing shortage of approximately 1.2 million homes and rising construction, labor, insurance and property tax costs as factors worsening affordability.

In other words, the math is ugly: payments have nearly doubled while incomes have crawled along, and a huge share of homeowners are sitting on cheap mortgages they have no incentive to give up. That locks up supply and keeps prices high for everyone else. Pritzker's argument is that some of the fix has to happen at the local level, where rules about what can be built and where often determine whether a project pencils out at all.

Whether Illinois actually changes those rules is another question. Local zoning fights are famously tough, and ADU restrictions in particular tend to draw fierce neighborhood pushback. But Pritzker is at least putting the issue on the table, framing housing policy as a supply problem rather than just a subsidy problem.