Millions of Americans today, especially in Georgia, see the American dream of homeownership as merely that: a dream. It’s become something fantasized about but forever out of reach. That hopeless feeling stems from the cost of homeownership more than doubling in less than four years because of the government’s spending spree in Washington, D.C.
Over the past three and a half years, the Biden-Harris administration has led the charge for trillions of dollars in new spending. That has caused the federal debt to rise over $7.4 trillion while simultaneously spending about $1 trillion of cash that the Treasury previously held.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Worse, the Treasury estimates that it must borrow more than $500 billion more before the end of this year. By the time January 2025 rolls around, the administration will have overspent about $9.5 trillion in just four years, shattering the previous record.
All that government spending caused the worst inflation in over 40 years, repeating the public policy mistakes of the 1970s. Prices have risen so much faster than wages that the typical family’s weekly paycheck now buys $80 less than it did in January 2021.
Though prices are up an average of 20% over the past three and a half years, many costs, such as housing, have risen by a multiple of that. That’s largely because the Federal Reserve artificially reduced interest rates to allow the Treasury to borrow money very inexpensively. That helped finance massive government deficits, but it also inflated asset prices, including homes.
People could borrow so cheaply for a mortgage that they could afford much higher home prices. Buyers were flush with easy money, and the bidding wars ensued, as prices reached stratospheric levels.
But the sugar high was not to last. The Fed, after causing inflation by keeping interest rates too low, had to raise rates to fight that inflation, and mortgage rates tripled.
Prospective homebuyers today face a deadly combination of both high home prices and high interest rates. Because of those two factors, the monthly mortgage payment on a median price home has increased 116% since the Biden-Harris administration assumed power.
Because incomes haven’t risen anywhere near this much, people need to allocate a much larger percentage of those incomes to making house payments. That’s problematic at any time, but especially amid a cost-of-living crisis when families are paying more for everything and don’t have anywhere in their budgets that they can cut back.
Georgia is one of many states where not a single major metropolitan area is considered affordable today, meaning the median household income cannot reasonably afford the median price home.
In the greater Atlanta area, it takes more than half the median household’s take-home pay to afford a median price home. It’s even worse in Savannah, where the median household needs to devote almost 55% of its after-tax income just to own a home.
Sadly, that doesn’t leave enough money for other essentials such as food, clothing, medical insurance or a car payment. This is why most Americans don’t have an emergency fund, and the average savings rate is less than half what it was before the pandemic.
Millions of Americans have turned to credit cards to help make ends meet. They now owe $1.1 trillion in outstanding balances, costing over $240 billion in annual financing charges. As families fall further into debt, their hopes of ever saving for a down payment go out the window.
The only way to restore the American dream of homeownership is to reverse the failed public policies that crushed the dream to begin with. That means ending this multi-trillion-dollar spending spree before it ends the American dream for good.
E.J. Antoni, a public finance economist, is the Richard F. Aster fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity.
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