Denver7’s Shannon Ogden reports on a Gallup poll showing that just 25% of U.S. non-homeowners expect to buy a home within five years, the lowest figure Gallup has recorded since it began asking the question in 2013. Another 28% expect to buy within 10 years, while 45% do not think they will buy in the foreseeable future. That is not a housing market. That is the American Dream sitting behind glass with a “look, but don’t touch” sign.
The article notes that the median home price during the poll period was around $409,000 nationally, while the Colorado Association of Realtors puts the median sale price for a single-family home in the Denver metro around $575,000. So when young families say homeownership feels out of reach, they are not whining. They are doing math, which remains a hate crime against happy political messaging.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Only 25% of non-homeowners expect to buy a home within five years. Gallup has asked this seven times since 2013, and this is the lowest result yet. Congratulations, America. We turned starter homes into collector’s items.
- The pain is especially sharp for younger people. Denver7 reports that just 29% of non-homeowners ages 18 to 34 expect to buy within five years, down from 57% in 2013 and 2015.
- Dr. Vivek Sah of the University of Denver said younger generations increasingly see housing as something they can get stuck with, not necessarily the wealth-building machine earlier generations were promised. When the American Dream starts looking like a financial bear trap with granite countertops, something has gone sideways.
- Inventory is part of the problem. Gallup found 65% of homeowners say they are unlikely to sell in the foreseeable future. Why move when your current mortgage rate is the last affordable thing in your life?
- Just 29% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, while 67% say it is a bad time. That is the public looking at prices, rates, insurance, taxes, HOA fees, and closing costs and saying, “I believe I’ll keep renting this shoebox with character.”
My Bottom Line
This is what happens when housing stops being about families and starts being about scarcity, regulation, interest rates, and government pretending every cost it piles onto construction magically disappears before closing.
People still want homes. They want yards, stability, neighborhoods, equity, and a place where their kids can grow up without a lease renewal notice acting like a hostage letter. But wanting a home and being able to buy one are now two very different animals.
Colorado has made housing harder at nearly every turn. Regulations add cost. Fees add cost. Slow approvals add cost. Litigation risk adds cost. Water uncertainty adds cost. Energy mandates add cost. Then politicians stand at a podium and wonder why starter homes vanished like socks in a dryer.
The answer is not another glossy government program named something like “Homes for Tomorrow Equity Pathways Act.” The answer is to make it easier and cheaper to build the homes families actually need. Streamline approvals. Respect property rights. Reduce regulatory drag. Fund infrastructure. Stop treating builders like cartoon villains and then acting shocked when homes do not appear.
A society where young people do not believe they can own a home is a society with a warning light flashing on the dashboard. Ignore it long enough, and you do not just get a housing crisis. You get a trust crisis. People will stop believing the system works for them. And once that happens, good luck fixing it with another task force and a commemorative binder.
Source: Denver 7
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