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Jennie Rangel feels stuck. The mom of five in Chandler, Arizona, tells us she can't catch a break. "I did everything I was supposed to do," she said. "I was in the military. I went to college. I worked. And we can't buy a home. What did I do wrong?

Jennie, a nurse, and her husband, K.C., a manufacturing tech at Intel, have pretty good jobs. But she says they are not even close to covering their living expenses: "We pay about three grand in rent. We have all of the utilities. We have car payments, car insurance, mouths to feed, and gas. Maybe we have enough left over for groceries and toiletries and household stuff. Why are we struggling?"

Jennie and K.C. are both in their forties, and have never owned a home. They're part of a growing number of Millennials who see themselves as "forever renters," because they can't afford to buy. "This home I'm renting goes for $600,000. We can't afford a $600,000 home, you know, with our income. Maybe $300,000."

And what they could buy with $300,000 would not be much.

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, home prices across the country have soared nearly 50 percent. Today's median price: $416,000.

"We are also looking at high mortgage rates, which means it's expensive to borrow money to buy a home," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. And that's if you can find a home in your price range. "One of the reasons is that we haven't had enough building over the last decade," Hale said. "And when you have a shortage of supply and a steady amount of demand, the way the market solves that is by pushing prices higher."

Realtor.com estimates that there is a shortage of four million homes. And while home prices have gone up 300% since 1990, incomes have not kept up, only rising by roughly half that amount.

A realtor.com survey found that 75 percent of Americans believe in the dream of home ownership, and it can be done, but it might require pulling up roots … and heading to the heartland.

Like to Topeka, Kansas. "This is a city where the American Dream is still possible," said Bob Ross, one of the leaders behind "Choose Topeka," a program offering people a relocation incentive of up to $15,000 to move to town.

He says participants in the program have come from 37 states: "They recognize that the cost of living that they can get here is so much more meaningful to them."

"Choose Topeka" is funded by a half-cent county sales tax. More than 200 families have moved to the capital city of Kansas since it launched in 2020, and Ross says 90 percent of them have stayed.

Choose Topeka by Greater Topeka Partnership on YouTube
Less than two years ago, Allison and Jacob Reynolds were living in Northern California with a newborn. "On average where we lived, a two bed, one bath house would be $500,000," Allison said. "That's, like, kind of a fixer-upper. Yeah, it would have been unfeasible for us financially without support from someone else."

Turns out Allison, a high school teacher expecting baby #2, is a Topeka native. The couple took advantage of the "Choose Topeka" boomerang incentive, which offers past residents $5,000 to move home.

"The grant incentive that we applied for and received completely covered our moving expenses," Allison said.

Jacob said they might have made the move without the grant, "but it would have definitely left a hole in our pocket. That down payment on the house kind of emptied us out."

They purchased their four bedroom home for $179,000. Their monthly mortgage in Topeka is $1,300, compared to $1,800 a month for rent in California – five hundred dollars of savings they put towards childcare.

The Reynoldses bought in their early 30s, beating today's average 40-year-old first-time homebuyer, and that gives them a head start.

Realtor.com's Danielle Hale said, "If you can buy a home closer to age 30 versus age 40, that means you have a $100,000 additional net worth boost by the time you turn 50."

Back in Arizona, 41-year-old Jennie Rangel is still chasing the dream. "I'm not gonna give up," she said. "The goal is to buy a home in three years. If I have to get a second job as a nurse, then so be it. … I'm gonna do it, because I'm gonna give my kids something to be proud of."

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