Here are the ideas that could really help solve America’s affordability crisis in 2026

These concerns aren’t purely partisan: 37% of people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 said the current cost of living is the worst they can remember, a recent Politico poll found.

Increasingly, affordability issues are front and center, with politicians such as New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, and Trump offering possible solutions. As 2026 dawns, many of these ideas will be put to the test. With midterm elections coming in November, pocketbook subjects like the cost of groceries and utilities appear poised to grab a bigger share of voters’ attention — and ire.

Two of the more promising policies to emerge from this year’s scattershot response to affordability concerns were “Trump accounts” — investment accounts for children that will become available in 2026 — and a law guaranteeing free universal child care in New Mexico that took effect in November, experts told MarketWatch.

Related: Who qualifies for the ‘Trump accounts’ for kids?

The Trump accounts “hold tremendous promise to build wealth and help restore some hope in the American dream, because families need both income and wealth,” Signe-Mary McKernan, an economist and vice president of the Family and Financial Well-Being Division at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, told MarketWatch.

Meanwhile, New Mexico’s free child care “will potentially take a lot of pressure off of a lot of working families” in the state, said Greg Acs, vice president of the Tax and Income Supports Division at the Urban Institute.

Still, lawmakers’ piecemeal approach to affordability thus far — focused on things like lower drug costs or city-run grocery stores — isn’t enough to solve problems that are now far-reaching.

In many cases, “politicos are just providing — and this goes from Trump to Mamdani — temporary relief programs, not structural changes,” Andre Perry, senior fellow and director of the Center for Community Uplift at Brookings, told MarketWatch. When it comes to structural change, he said, “if you’re not talking about the budget and taxation, then you’re not really talking.”

Here are 10 ideas for addressing America’s affordability crisis that drew headlines in 2025 and will be tested in 2026 — and a look at how much they’ll actually help struggling Americans.

1. Free child care to relieve a key financial pain point for parents

In most states, parents of young children spend more on child care each month than they do on housing — and more than they would spend if their child was at their state’s public college instead of with a care provider.

Now the political appeal of eliminating that cost is growing. In New Mexico, state officials launched the nation’s first statewide universal child-care program this year for children ages 6 weeks to 13 years, regardless of the family’s income.

Research about programs already in operation indicate that free child care is “a real game changer” for parents of young children, said Erica Greenberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. It provides children with a stable environment in which to thrive and parents with the ability to earn more money. Perhaps most crucially, it gets rid of a major cost at a time when young parents are likely earning less than they will later in their careers.

“It’s an incredible affordability boost for families,” said Greenberg. “People who are thinking about having children but affordability is an issue for them, it really takes the issue off the table.” In New Mexico, free care is projected to save families $12,000 a year on average, according to the state.

The universal nature of these programs also mean they benefit families that make too much to receive most government subsidies but still can’t comfortably afford child care. The government funding also makes it easier for child-care businesses to operate, including by providing a steady source of income that means they can budget for things like buying diapers in bulk and paying their employees a living wage.

But making these programs a reality is challenging. New Mexico is relatively unique in that the state has a reliable funding source — a trust fund built from the state’s oil and gas revenue. But the experience of other localities indicate that finding money for these programs can be difficult politically. For example, even before Mamdani was elected in New York in November, there was already some debate about how the city would pay for the universal child care he promised during his campaign.

—Jillian Berman

2. ‘Trump accounts’ to help children start investing early in life

Investment accounts for children seeded with government funds were proposed in April by hedge-fund founder Brad Gerstner, chief executive of Altimeter Capital Management, to Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, with the aim of giving children a jump start with investing. Some of these tax-deferred “Trump accounts,” as they are becoming known, will be funded by the federal government in a pilot program that gives $1,000 to U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028.

Billionaire Michael Dell has said he would contribute $6.25 billion to seed 25 million additional accounts with $250 each for children ages 10 and under who were born before the eligibility date for the federal contribution and who live in ZIP codes where the median family income is below $150,000. Hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio made a similar pledge for children in Connecticut, and companies including Bank of New York Mellon and Charter Communications have also pledged to make contributions for their employees’ children.

While the government’s plan has been criticized for not automatically enrolling children and for not prioritizing low-income households over those with high incomes, it still provides a “substantial initial deposit and leverages investment growth,” according to the Urban Institute.

— Venessa Wong

Read more: Read this before putting any of your own money into one of those ‘Trump accounts’ for babies

3. ‘Big, beautiful’ tax breaks aimed at trimming tax bills and fattening refunds

In early 2026, Americans will get to see if a massive new tax law is going to help make their lives more affordable. The 2026 tax season is the first in which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s bevy of tax breaks are in effect. There are temporary new tax deductions for tips and overtime pay and for senior citizens, as well as extra tax-cutting power for existing write-offs, such as a $40,000 deduction that will help homeowners facing high state income taxes and rising local property taxes.

Next year’s tax refunds could be up to $1,000 larger on average, early estimates say. But taxpayers shouldn’t get used to that, because many of these new tax breaks expire after 2028.

— Andrew Keshner

More on this: Tax breaks and spending cuts: Here are the winners and losers in Trump’s big bill

4. Utility-bill freezes to help control soaring gas and electric bills

U.S. home-heating costs are projected to rise 9.2% this winter — three times the overall rate of inflation — according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. This jump is driven by surging electricity and natural-gas prices, cold weather conditions and power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers.

See more on utility bills: Electric bills are shooting up more than 7% this winter. Here’s what you can do now to lower your costs.

These expenses were top of mind for ratepayers this year, particularly in New Jersey, where voters chose a new governor who promised to freeze electric bills for a year. Alabama’s largest electric utility, Alabama Power, is moving forward with a plan to freeze rates through 2027 to help customers “at a time when many other household and business costs are rising,” said Moses Feagin, chief financial officer at the utility.

While rate freezes prevent increases for a set period of time, some energy experts say they don’t address the core affordability issue.

“The public wants the rates going back to where they were six months or a year ago,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the NEADA. However, he added, “it’s easier to freeze rates where they are than to say, ‘Let’s take them back to where they were,’ because utilities will push back and say, ‘We’ll lose money. We won’t do it.’”

— Genna Contino

5. Trump’s move to lower specific drug prices 

President Trump has cut deals with 14 drugmakers that allow those companies to bypass tariffs in exchange for selling certain medications at a discount directly to consumers on a yet-to-launch site called TrumpRx.

Most of the medications treat common conditions like migraines, obesity, diabetes and asthma. The idea is to cut out the middlemen, including health insurers — and with them the secret negotiations that establish how much a patient pays for a single drug when covered by their specific health-insurance plan — and then lower the price. For example, Eli Lilly’s weight-management drug Zepbound will cost $346 per month on TrumpRx. That’s down from a list price of $1,086 a month, but still higher than $299 the company charges for a month’s supply of a single-dose vial on the its own direct-pay site.

So will these deals lower healthcare costs for everyday Americans? That’s hard to say. There are few details about the deals or the types of patients who can pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket per month for prescription drugs that are often covered by insurance. “It’s unlikely most people will want to go outside their insurance/deductible unless the discounts are incredible,” said Suhas Gondi, chief medical officer for health strategy and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

— Jaimy Lee

Related: After years of rising drug prices, more discounts are here — at least for Medicare

6. $2,000 ‘tariff rebate checks’ sent directly to Americans

Would getting a $2,000 check from the federal government help Americans deal with the high cost of living? The extra money would be welcomed by most people, but similar payments in 2021 contributed to soaring inflation. And it’s not clear that the checks actually will go out.

Trump promised in 2025 to send out the checks “probably in the middle of next year,” or “a little bit later than that,” while billing them as dividends or “tariff rebate checks” as he aims to show the benefits of his many import taxes. The payments could come through a new budget bill that clears the Republican-run Senate in a simple majority vote through a process known as reconciliation, but some analysts aren’t convinced the checks will ever be sent.

Republicans in the Senate and House already have expressed opposition to such checks, or have at least sounded hesitant about them, saying tariff revenue should instead go toward paying down the $38 trillion national debt. Lawmakers also might have concerns about overstimulating the economy and goosing inflation.

Trump, in part, is responding to Democratic election victories in November in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City, where candidates won after emphasizing proposals to make life more affordable.

— Victor Reklaitis

In more detail: Trump administration says it’s considering $2,000 tariff rebate checks for about 60% of U.S. households. Here’s who would qualify.

7. A 50-year mortgage aimed at lowering runaway housing costs

Buying a house is out of reach for many Americans, with home prices hitting record highs this past year and mortgage rates remaining elevated. To combat persistently high housing costs, Trump proposed creating a new 50-year mortgage that would lower monthly payments by spreading them out over a much longer period.

Most of the mortgage industry panned the idea, in large part because it would take a long time before borrowers could begin to build significant equity in their home. When a homeowner first starts repaying their mortgage, most of the money goes toward interest, not the principal.

Plus, with the median age of the first-time buyer hitting an all-time high of 40, the prospect of homeowners being 90 years old when they finally pay off their mortgage was troubling to many.

But the idea wasn’t universally hated: Mat Ishbia, chief executive of United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the country’s largest mortgage lenders, said he was a fan. “People don’t care about the [long] term, they care about the payment,” Ishbia said in a video.

— Aarthi Swaminathan

Also on MarketWatch: A 50-year mortgage is ‘only going to hurt the consumer.’ Here are some ideas that could actually help.

8. Abolishing fast-rising property taxes

Property-tax bills have soared in recent years. The increase has been fueled by hot housing markets and the rising costs of neighborhood necessities like schools, police, libraries, roads and garbage pickup.

But what about ending local property taxes altogether? Florida and Texas are two states where lawmakers are seriously considering the possibility, and the ideas could sharpen into action in 2026. The challenge will be to find money elsewhere to pay for local services.

The ideas vary. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, is running for re-election and calling for a constitutional amendment to end the property taxes that homeowners have to pay to fund their school districts.

Florida has at least four proposed constitutional amendments targeting property taxes that are moving through the legislative process. One would abolish local property taxes, except taxes tied to school funding. People whose primary residence is in the state would be allowed to skip the tax. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, is pushing an idea to end all property taxes for these people.

“2026 is shaping up to be an intense year,” said Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation. He’s been watching what he’s called a “property tax revolt” and noted other 2026 efforts to end property taxes in Wyoming, Michigan and Ohio.

“The property tax is the cornerstone of local government,” though the bills can be too steep, he said. But how would local governments replace the money that pays for local services? With the anti-tax proposals, “it’s important voters have the full picture.”

— Andrew Keshner

More on property taxes: A ‘property-tax revolt’ is underway across the country. These numbers explain what’s driving it.

9. Rolling back fuel economy to target car affordability

Can new fuel-economy rules from Washington save you money? The Trump administration says yes, but some experts are skeptical. The White House rolled out a proposal in December that would require an average fuel-efficiency of 34.5 miles a gallon for vehicles by the 2031 model year, down from the 50.4 miles a gallon standard set by the Biden administration. Car buyers would save $1,000 per vehicle, according to the administration’s math, but drivers would spend more on gas, and cars would emit more carbon dioxide.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the biggest price pressures on car buyers have “next to nothing to do with fuel-economy mandates.” Instead, what’s jacking up car prices are factors like tariffs on steel and aluminum, higher commodity prices and tech additions that consumers demand, like screens and sensors, he said. The average price of a new car in the U.S. surpassed $50,000 for the first time this fall.

— Robert Schroeder

See this: Trump touts rollback of fuel standards. Here’s why it ‘won’t suddenly make cars cheaper.’

10. City-run grocery stores to help bring down high food prices

As of September, U.S. grocery prices had gone up by nearly 30.7% compared with September 2019, putting a particularly heavy burden on low-income households, who spend a larger share of their budgets on groceries.

The Biden administration blamed “greedflation” and price gouging by food companies. The Trump administration said in December that it will target “price fixing and anti-competitive practices across the food sector.”

Some local lawmakers are experimenting with another solution: city-run grocery stores. Atlanta opened its first one in August. In New York City, Mamdani proposed having the city cover rent and property taxes for city-run stores that would sell food at wholesale prices.

Public grocery stores already exist in the form of commissaries on military bases. The idea has also been tried in other U.S. cities, where some of the stores have closed. Grocery stores have thin margins, and “city governments — especially those burdened by bureaucracy — are unlikely to replicate the efficiency of giants and the personal touch of small businesses,” wrote Austin Milks, deputy research director at the centrist group No Labels.

— Venessa Wong