Cali Survey: Half Still Believe In ‘The American Dream,’ Nearly All Acknowledge Home Ownership Harder To Attain

Ninety-three percent of Orange County residents say buying a home there is harder today than it was for their parents’ generation. Republicans, Democrats, renters, homeowners, every generation from Gen Z to Boomers: nearly all of them agree homeownership in today’s day and age is far more difficult to attain for younger generations.

That near-unanimous verdict sits inside a new poll from the University of California, Irvine that finds Orange County split on something bigger: whether the American Dream itself still works there. Forty-five percent of residents say the Dream is still achievable in the county. An equal 45% say it once was, but no longer is. A smaller share, 6%, say it was never attainable at all. That divide contrasts with national sentiment: in 2024, 53% of Americans said the American Dream was still possible to achieve, meaning Orange County trails the national figure by a notable margin.

Residents aren’t turning their backs on the idea of the American Dream itself. They’re questioning whether Orange County can still deliver on it. Nearly seven in ten said hard work alone is no longer enough to afford a home and raise a family there, part of a broader pattern in which 79% say raising a family is harder and 70% say getting a good job is harder than it was for their parents’ generation.

What the American Dream Actually Means to Orange County Residents

Part of what makes the division so revealing is that residents don’t share a single definition of the American Dream in the first place. When asked what it means to them, 28% pointed to financial security and stability, 22% said owning a home and raising a family, and another 22% described it as freedom and personal independence.

Generational differences shaped those definitions sharply. Gen Z residents were far more likely than any other age group to define the Dream in terms of personal freedom and independence, at 38%. Millennials and Gen X residents connected the Dream more to homeownership and family, at 30% and 32% respectively, while Boomers leaned toward financial security more than any other generation, at 35%.

Asian-American residents were more likely than other groups to define the Dream through financial security, at 37%, while Latino residents more often pointed to homeownership and raising a family, at 32%.

Religion and Income, Not Race or Age, Drive the Divide

Belief in the Dream’s continued availability in Orange County breaks down in some unexpected ways. Religion turned out to be the single strongest dividing line in the poll: 60% of residents who said religion is very important in their lives believed the American Dream is still achievable, compared with 31% of those who said religion is not important.

Income and homeownership also mattered. Homeowners were considerably more optimistic than renters, 52% versus 37%. Among residents with household incomes of at least $100,000, half said the Dream is still attainable, compared with 35% of those earning less than $50,000. Political affiliation showed a more modest divide, with Republicans somewhat more optimistic than Democrats and Independents, at 53% versus 41% and 40%.

Perhaps most surprisingly, race, ethnicity, and age did not separate residents nearly as much as those other factors. White, Latino, and Asian-American residents expressed broadly similar levels of optimism. Among generational differences, the more notable finding was that 15% of Gen Z residents said the American Dream was never achievable at all, compared with just 1% of Baby Boomers.

The Cost of Living Is Forcing Real Decisions Off the Table

Beyond attitudes and beliefs, the poll captured something more concrete: how the cost of living is reshaping residents’ actual life choices. Nearly six in ten residents, 57%, said Orange County’s cost of living had caused them to delay or scale back at least one major decision, such as buying a home, getting married, having children, or changing careers. Thirty-five percent said they had postponed or pulled back on multiple milestones.

Millennials reported the highest rate of these delays, at 76%, followed by Gen Z and Gen X at 60% each and Boomers at 36%. Democrats and Independents were more likely than Republicans to report scaling back major decisions due to cost.

Residents were also consistent in their belief that the difficulty is systemic, not personal. About 35% said they work harder than their parents did, while only 21% said they work less hard, and 36% said about the same. Asked how their parents would judge their work ethic, the answers landed in a similar range: 33% said harder, 26% less hard, 32% about the same. In residents’ view, it’s the barriers that have grown larger, not their effort.

Still, more than two-thirds said they would encourage a young adult to build a future in Orange County. Nearly half added reservations about cost, only 19% encouraged it without hesitation, and just over a quarter said to look elsewhere.

That tension captures the broader mood of the poll. More residents believe the county’s best years are behind it than ahead, 45% versus 32%, with roughly one in five offering no opinion. Orange County residents haven’t abandoned the Dream. Many are just no longer sure the county they call home can still make it real.

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Disclaimer: This article summarizes findings from a public-opinion survey and is intended for general informational purposes. Survey results are estimates, and subgroup findings carry larger uncertainty than the full-sample figures.

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