Only One-Third of Americans Feel American Dream is Achievable: Poll

A new survey reveals the sheer bleakness of most Americans’ economic outlooks, with only one-third of respondents believing that the American Dream is achievable.

As the Daily Caller reports, the results of the Wall Street Journal/NORC poll stands in stark contrast to a poll conducted 12 years earlier by the Public Religion Research Institute, which found that over half of respondents believed in the American Dream.

“Key aspects of the American Dream seem out of reach in a way that they were not in past generations,” said Emerson Sprick, an economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Among the most crucial aspects in achieving or failing to achieve the American Dream was the issue of homeownership. In the survey, a mere 10% said that they consider it “easy or somewhat easy” to become homeowners; overall, 89% of respondents said that they consider homeownership to be “essential or important to their vision of the future.”

A similar response was recorded on the question of financial security, with 96% saying they consider it “essential or important” to be successful in life. However, only 9% of respondents think it is “easy or somewhat easy” to achieve financial security today.

The concerns expressed in the survey reflect the broader unease displayed by the American public in the midst of ongoing record-high inflation, which has directly impacted home prices and other critical financial assets in most Americans’ lives. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, inflation has risen by more than 20%, while interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, in an attempt to curb inflation, have resulted in the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage doubling from 3% to 6% since Biden took office.

The median price of a previously-owned home in America has also reached a record-high of $419,300 as of the month of May. The United States faced a peak shortage of 4 to 7 million homes in November of 2023, with housing costs accounting for 90% of all inflation as of July.

The poll, featuring a sample size of 1,502 American adults, was conducted between June 26th and July 8th. It has a margin of error of 3.3%.