After five months and more rejected offers than she can remember, Stefanie Campagna was starting to doubt whether she might be able to buy a new home in Rochester, New York.

That was until this month, when one seller finally said yes. To get there, Campagna had to pay $100,000 over the asking price, outbidding 36 other offers.

Her story is a sign of the times. In today’s housing market, even the lucky ones often face exhausting ordeals and need to stretch their budgets to land a home.

In the past few weeks, President Trump has blamed America’s largest homebuilders for the country’s housing affordability woes. In a social media post this month, Trump compared homebuilders to oil cartel OPEC, accusing them of sitting on empty lots to keep home prices artificially high.

Economists broad

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