GEOFF BENNETT: For his part, President Biden was on the campaign trail today in the key swing state of Nevada, where he touted a plan to address skyrocketing housing costs and a severe shortage of affordable homes.

I spoke earlier today with Tom Perez, a senior adviser to the president, about the administration's latest effort.

Tom Perez, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

TOM PEREZ, Senior Adviser to President Biden: It's a pleasure to be with you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Most of the problems with the housing market stem from a shortage of homes.

Homeowners are in many cases unable or unwilling to move because they don't want to give up the record low mortgage rate they locked in during the pandemic.

So how would President Biden's plan help free up existing homes and incentivize sellers?

TOM PEREZ: Sure.

No, your point is a fair point.

When you have a 3 percent interest rate on your loan and you're trying to buy a new house, and, right now, you're a 6 percent, 6.5 percent interest rate environment, that's a problem.

The one -- one part of the president's proposal will help a person who's been in their house who didn't have kids when they bought the house, but now they have two children, to get a $10,000 tax credit for two years if they go into a bigger home.

That will free up that existing stock.

It's $400 a month.

And the reason for two years is because we're confident that, in two years, the interest rate environment will continue to improve, as it has been.

And so that's one example of what we're trying to do to help homeowners and to help the issue you said about the failure to have enough stock.

But another thing we have to do is build, build, build.

We need more housing stock.

And the president talked about it in the State of the Union.

There's a $20 billion proposal in the president's budget to work with state, local authorities, and other key stakeholders to build more affordable housing.

We need more supply.

There are already 1.7 million homes being built right now, which is record.

But we know it's a tip of the iceberg of what the need is.

And that's why the president's being so aggressive.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let me ask you about that.

TOM PEREZ: Sure.

GEOFF BENNETT: Because I spoke to a couple of leaders in the housing industry preparing to speak with you.

And what they told me is, what they really need is tax policy that spurs and incentivizes development.

And they need regulatory reform.

You have housing developers who say they simply cannot afford to navigate a matrix of regulations that not only encompass every step of the building process, but the operating process.

And then you have these regulations that seem to constantly shift.

How is the administration going to address that?

TOM PEREZ: Well, the $20 billion Innovation Fund, the operative word is innovation.

It is incentivizing best practices at a local level.

I used to serve in local government here in Maryland, where I live.

And land use issues are what you're referring to in your question.

The federal government doesn't control the pace at which a home is built.

Those are state and usually local issues.

And so our Innovation Fund is designed to help make sure that people and local governments can move faster, while respecting other issues that are of importance in those local government areas.

We recognize that time is essential in these construction projects.

Time is, frankly, money for many, many people.

And that's why I think this Innovation Fund is very, very exciting.

GEOFF BENNETT: I'm sure there are would-be first-time homebuyers who are watching this who feel that they have been sort of locked out of the market because those first-time homes, those starter homes are so unaffordable.

What is the specific proposal that would help them?

TOM PEREZ: Sure.

The specific proposal is the -- both the $10,000 tax credit, so $400 a month for two years.

That's the equivalent of knocking a little over a point, I think, off of the interest rate, depending on the size of the loan.

In addition, we are reducing costs.

So, for instance, if you need to get title insurance, we're running a pilot program for federally insured loans to eliminate that requirement of title insurance.

That knocks $1,000 off the cost.

We're -- the various alphabet soup of regulatory agencies are looking very closely at other junk fees that are all about getting a little more money for lenders, and at the expense of would-be homebuyers.

So these are the things that we're doing.

The president continues to call on Congress to pass his proposal for housing assistance for down payments, because what we have seen is that a lot of people can afford the mortgage payment, but that $15,000 down payment or the $20,000 down payment is what trips them up.

So we have worked hard to identify the barriers to entry.

And what I would say to would-be homeowners is, let's work together, because opportunities are out there for you to realize that American dream.

GEOFF BENNETT: Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, now senior adviser to President Biden and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, thanks for your time this evening.

TOM PEREZ: Pleasure to be with you.