Exclusive: Dems launch election-year affordable housing blitz

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will host lawmakers and organizations working on housing affordability for a roundtable on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
• They're also set to release a report Wednesday on Trump's housing policies, in which they argue the president has "failed and broken his promise" to bring down costs.

The big picture: Schumer is betting that he can find a path back to a Senate majority by hammering issues of affordability this year — a plan he has laid out to fellow Democrats.

• On housing, Schumer, Warren and Democrats think they have plenty of ammo. The age of the average first-time homebuyers reached 40 last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
• Foreclosure rates were up by 21% last year, according to research from the real estate data firm ATTOM.
• And mortgage delinquency rates last month hit a four-year high.

Between the lines: Trump and his top officials have floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage to help making buying homes more affordable. Democrats say it wouldn't work.

• The Democratic report set to be released Wednesday says the idea would "practically double the cost of buying a home."
• And as Axios' Neil Irwin points out, borrowers who take a 50-year loan will find themselves paying down debts much more slowly than those who use conventional loans, while saving only a little on their monthly payments.
• The White House has also thrown its support behind a bipartisan housing bill designed to increase supply and expand access to affordable housing, but it has yet to clear Congress.

Go deeper: Dems ordered to go all-in on affordability vs. Trump