Billions spent by key federal agency hasn't made American dream of homeownership any easier: report

The traditional American dream of homeownership slipped further out of reach across the country over the last decade, even as Washington spent hundreds of billions of dollars on housing programs, according to a new government watchdog analysis.

Open The Books, a conservative watchdog that tracks government spending, analyzed a decade of home price and household income data across all 50 states and compared it with federal housing spending, finding virtually no relationship between greater investment from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and narrower affordability gaps.

The watchdog found home prices grew faster than median household incomes in every state during the 10 years it reviewed.

"The further you get from a prospective home site, the less effective or efficient any spending or regulatory tweak is likely to be," Christopher Neefus, vice president of communications for Open The Books, told Fox News Digital.

"A single agency in Washington is likely the least equipped to offer some uniform solution." AMERICA’S BROKEN PERMITTING SYSTEM IS QUIETLY RAISING YOUR COST OF LIVING To measure that disparity, Open The Books calculated the percentage growth in each state’s Federal Housing Finance Agency home price index over the decade and subtracted the percentage growth in median household income over the same period, calling the difference the "Affordability Gap." Effectively, the metric measures how much faster home prices rose than median household incomes in each state.

The watchdog found home prices grew faster than median household incomes in every state between 2015 and 2024, creating what the group dubbed an "Affordability Gap." The wider the gap, the further the traditional dream of homeownership slipped from what household incomes could keep pace with.

In 48 states, that gap reached double digits, while 17 states saw home price growth outpace income growth by more than 50 percentage points, according to Open The Books' analysis.

GOP CAN'T AGREE ON KEY PART OF TRUMP'S HOUSING AFFORDABILITY PUSH AS INFIGHTING CONTINUES "In this case, nearly half a trillion dollars was shoveled into the states over a decade, but it offered no meaningful effect for Americans whose incomes were outrun by prices in every state," Neefus said.