The housing affordability conversation has a blind spot. For decades, it has centered almost entirely on entry: down payments, mortgage rates, inventory, supply. That work matters, and while there is clearly much more to be done, it has produced real results over the years. However, it shares a design logic with nearly every major housing policy intervention of the last century. Get people in the door, and the rest will follow.
It won’t. The data is starting to show it.
As the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) approaches its 40th anniversary, policymakers are rightly acknowledging one of the most consequential affordable housing programs in American history. Yet even that conversation reveals the pattern. The focus, as it has always been, is on getting people in homes. Almost no one is asking what happens afterwards. A Hometap survey of 1,000 homeowners conducted in June 2026 found that fewer than one in five say homeownership has fully delivered on the promise of the American Dream. That is the story policy has yet to reckon with.
The policy playbook has focused on entry
Recent Realtor.com research traced the history of federal housing legislation, and the story it tells is genuinely impressive. The Homestead Act, the GI Bill, the Fair Housing Act, HERA, the ROAD Act. Each one moved the needle on who could get in.
That progress is real. Currently, about 65% of U.S. households own their home. The laws that helped build that statistic share a common design logic: they were built around the front door. Very few were designed for the financial reality of staying in. The burden of long-term homeownership has been compounding for years, largely outside the view of policymakers.
The affordability problem nobody is measuring
While policymakers debate supply and entry costs, a parallel burden has been building quietly. Rising home values are supposed to be good news. But for many homeowners, a more valuable home means higher bills and equity they cannot access.
Property taxes are up nearly 30% since 2019. Homeowners insurance premiums rose 24% from 2021 to 2024, twice the rate of inflation. Annual spending on home maintenance and repairs is on track to reach $518 billion in 2026, a new record high. These are not entry costs. They are the cost of staying. They are rising faster than wages, faster than inflation and faster than any policy conversation is tracking them.
A recent survey found that nearly two-thirds of homeowners (63.2%) are now stressed by the cost of owning a home, up from 55% just a year ago. That pressure is following them to the ballot box: 77% say a candidate’s plan to cut costs would sway their vote. Yet only 26% believe the right candidate could actually lower what they pay, and 71% expect their costs to rise no matter who wins. That number should give policymakers pause.
The wealth problem compounds it further. Americans collectively hold nearly $35 trillion in housing equity. That wealth is largely locked up and cannot absorb the very costs it is generating. 80.3% of mortgaged homeowners carry a rate below 6%, meaning a refinance or HELOC triggers a painful rate penalty for most. 35% of equity extraction applications were denied in 2024.
Federal policy has touched equity access before through HELOCs, reverse mortgages and the mortgage interest deduction. However, those tools were built for a different homeowner in a different era. The entry door got wider. The room inside keeps getting more expensive.
What policy needs to address next
The next era of housing policy does not need to start from scratch. It needs to catch up.
Three areas are worth policymakers’ attention. First, property tax structures that do not punish long-term owners simply because their home values have risen. Some states are already making progress, introducing targeted tax relief for long-term owners. Tools like circuit breakers, which protect homeowners when tax bills outpace income, and levy limits, which prevent property taxes from rising faster than inflation, are worth exploring. They are not without tradeoffs and design matters.
Second, the insurance market. More states should advance policy solutions that make insurance more accessible and affordable for the homeowners who need it most. That includes giving incentives to insurers to offer discounts for mitigation investments such as storm-resistant roofing or flood barriers that meaningfully reduce risk. The regulatory response to rising premiums has not kept pace. That needs to change.
Third, and most structurally important, is equity access. The existing framework for home equity products was built for a borrower with stable W-2 income in a predictable rate environment. The modern homeowner is income-variable, rate-locked, and cash-constrained. 87% of homeowners say they wish they could access their equity without taking on a monthly payment. The financial products available to them, and the regulatory frameworks governing those products, need to reflect how people actually live today.
What comes next
Homeownership was always meant to be a foundation. Right now, for too many Americans, it is becoming a burden. For decades, Washington has focused on getting more Americans in the door. It is time to focus on bills that reflect the full cost of homeownership for the people already inside.
Jeffrey Glass, Hometap CEO and Cofounder, is a serial entrepreneur, business operator and investor.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.
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