Disappointed American Dream Stories of Home Ownership Begin to Rankle

Housing Affordability Concerns Dominate Discourse on Economic Opportunity

Media narratives about housing accessibility reached a stark milestone in November. Perscient’s semantic signature tracking the density of language arguing that home ownership is out of reach for Americans climbed once again to a level twice its long-term average. This surge corresponds with National Association of Realtors data showing that the median age of first-time buyers hit a record 40 years old, prompting one observer to note that today's first-time homebuyer is "just as close to taking Social Security as to graduating from high school." First-time buyers now comprise only 21% of home sales—the lowest share since 1981.

That this is the reality for so many Americans doesn’t mean that they have accepted that reality, however. Language asserting that every working American should be able to own their own home remained elevated at 45% above the long-term mean in November. This persistent density reflects continued emphasis on homeownership as a fundamental birthright of Americans even as the practical barriers for so many seem to have multiplied. The gap between aspiration and reality appears in survey data showing that more than half of Americans say homeownership defines the American Dream, with 72% of millennials and 70% of Gen Zers hoping to buy within five years.

Prospective buyers are adapting to these constraints in ways that could reshape traditional pathways to homeownership. According to Coldwell Banker research, 42% said they would take on multiple jobs to afford a home, 35% would accept a less ideal property or relocate to a more affordable area, and more than a third have considered co-buying with family or friends. Americans are delaying marriage, children, and career advancement until they can secure housing.

The importance of housing is such that the most fundamental stories of American opportunity cannot help but to be affected. The density of language arguing that the American Dream is dying strengthened to more than 61% above average, while its counterpart asserting that the American Dream is alive and well fell by 12% points into below-average territory. Other narratives support the notion of growing pessimism in the stories of an American Dream. The density of language celebrating Americans' capacity to build things from nothing declined by 10% in November, and assertions that Americans have forgotten how to build things rose.

The policy response has been bipartisan, if limited, in nature. The Senate Banking Committee unanimously advanced the ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to shift infrastructure costs from developers to cities for first-time homebuyers. The legislative momentum reflects recognition that solving the affordability crisis, as one analysis notes, will require long-term, bipartisan collaboration.

Capitalism Critiques Gain Ground Amid Wealth Concentration Concerns

The housing affordability crisis sits not only within the conversation about the American Dream, but within a broader conversation about capitalism's distributional outcomes. Language criticizing American capitalism's distributional outcomes also crossed an important threshold in November, with assertions that American-style capitalism only benefits the rich and leaves millions behind rising to above-average territory for the first time in recent months. At the same time, language defending capitalism's track record of reducing global poverty remained sparse at 55% below average, which is a glorified way of saying that nobody is talking about it. There IS no counternarrative to the growing narrative of capitalism as fundamentally unfair.

The movement in these linguistic patterns corresponds with recent wealth concentration data. The top 10% of U.S. households now control 67% of all wealth while the bottom half holds just 2.5%. Within equity markets specifically, the concentration is even more extreme: the top 10% own 87% of stocks, with the top 1% alone holding 50%. Survey data shows that 54% of Americans describe the gap between rich and poor as a very big problem, and 57% say the federal government should pursue policies to reduce this gap.

Columbia University economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has warned that unchecked inequality is pushing America toward economic and political peril. At a minimum it has pushed America toward electing a democratic socialist to be the Mayor of New York City. The concentration of wealth has become increasingly visible in the billionaire class: Oxfam research found that the wealth of the top 10 U.S. billionaires grew by $698 billion in the past year alone. Against this backdrop, the typical American worker approaches retirement with about $4,000 in savings, according to data cited in multiple analyses.

In past periods of wealth consolidation, financial media have managed to maintain a narrative that the rich earned that wealth. And yet in this environment, our semantic signature tracking the density of language asserting that America rewards individual merit fell by nearly 20 points in November. Public attitudes appear to be shifting in alignment with this change: surveys show that twice as many Americans now say privileged background matters more than hard work (39% versus 20%).

Language celebrating rags-to-riches stories as quintessentially American declined, too, although claims that America produces multi-generational poverty traps remained sparse. This suggests that while wealth concentration critiques have gained ground in popular media, language associating that income inequality with demographics has been more uneven.

Geographic Determinism Language Rebounds While Structural Barrier Narratives Weaken

That mixed track record for associating opportunity demographics, however, has not been uniform. For example, in November Perscient’s semantic signature tracking the density of language describing zip code as destiny in America surged by nearly 30% from a base of practically zero coverage. This sharp increase from an extremely low baseline suggests a real effort to promote narratives of place-based explanations of inequality. At the same time, language arguing that in America where you're born doesn't define where you end up fell to nearly 20% below its long-term average.

However, other demographic dimensions have not been attached to the recent rise in concern about capitalism and the American Dream – quite the opposite, in fact. Language indicative of assertions that race, gender, and ethnicity make it harder for some to achieve success fell by 17% points to a level nearly 60% below its long-term mean. The combination of rising geographic determinism language alongside falling demographic barrier language suggests a shift in media coverage from identity-based frameworks toward place-based explanations. It seems likely that this has something to do with the geographic concentrations of immigrant communities that have come under increasing fire in recent months.

This reframing also appears to be connected to the deeply geographically distributed housing crisis and the ways that it is reshaping access to opportunity. Housing affordability has fundamentally altered American economic mobility, with first-time buyers now comprising just 21% of all purchases. The geographic dimension of this crisis has become increasingly apparent as luxury homebuilding outpaces entry-level construction, with builders migrating toward higher-end markets where buyers with access to capital are willing to pay premium prices.

The Senate Banking Committee's unanimous, bipartisan vote supporting the ROAD to Housing Act signals renewed congressional focus on housing affordability as a geographic and economic access issue rather than primarily a demographic one. The legislation aims to reduce costs by shifting infrastructure expenses from municipalities, acknowledging that place-based cost structures have become central to who can access homeownership.

The divergence between these tracks—rising geographic determinism and falling demographic barrier language—may reflect how the housing crisis has created visible, place-based inequality that transcends traditional identity categories. When Americans need 70% higher income than six years ago to afford a median-priced home, and when the typical first-time buyer is 40 years old regardless of demographic background, the salience of geographic and economic barriers may be overshadowing other frameworks for understanding inequality.

This shift has implications for how younger Americans are responding to blocked opportunity. Research suggests that those priced out of the housing market are turning to riskier financial behavior, with some analysts noting that "gambling on improbable but potentially transformative gains may appear rational, particularly among younger cohorts." The convergence of these trends—geographic barriers to homeownership, declining faith in merit-based advancement, and increasingly desperate financial strategies—suggests that November's shifts in linguistic density reflect deeper structural changes in how Americans experience and discuss economic opportunity.

Archived Pulse

October 2025

• Entrepreneurial Spirit Surges to All-Time Peak
• Competing Narratives on the American Dream and Meritocracy
• Housing Affordability Crisis Deepens

Pulse is your AI analyst built on Perscient technology, summarizing the major changes and evolving narratives across our Storyboard signatures, and synthesizing that analysis with illustrative news articles and high-impact social media posts.