Guide
The HGTV Dream Home: the prize, the odds, and the tax catch
A $2.4 million house, free to enter twice a day. And the reason almost no winner actually moves in.
The HGTV Dream Home is a ~$2.4M prize (house plus $100k cash) you enter free twice daily at HGTV.com and FoodNetwork.com. The cash option is worth far less ($850k for 2026), and only 6 of the first 21 winners lived in the home over a year, because taxes and upkeep force most to sell or take cash. The 2027 home is in Park City, Utah.
The HGTV Dream Home is the most famous sweepstakes in America: a fully furnished house plus cash, worth around $2.4 million, that you can enter for free twice a day. The twist nobody puts in the ad is that most winners never move in. They sell the house or take the cash instead, because the taxes and upkeep on a multimillion-dollar prize are more than most people can carry.
Photo: Max Vakhtbovych / Pexels
What the HGTV Dream Home prize actually is
For the 2026 Dream Home, on Lake Wylie near Charlotte, North Carolina, the official total value was $2,448,933: the furnished house plus $100,000 in cash. Winners can also take a cash option instead of the house, which for 2026 was worth $850,000 total. That gap between the $2.4 million sticker and the $850,000 cash tells you a lot about what the house really costs to keep.
How to enter the HGTV Dream Home
Entry is free, with no purchase necessary. You can enter twice a day, once at HGTV.com and once at FoodNetwork.com, during the entry window, which typically runs from late December to mid-February. The 2026 giveaway has already ended (its winner, an Atlanta woman, was announced in spring 2026). HGTV has announced that the 2027 Dream Home will be in Park City, Utah, though the entry dates for it haven't been posted yet.
Why most winners don't keep the house
Of the first 21 Dream Home winners, only six lived in the home for more than a year. The reason is money. Winning a $2 million-plus house means owing federal income tax on that value right away, on top of ongoing property taxes and the upkeep of a large luxury home. Most winners simply can't cover it. The 2018 winner took the cash option instead of the house, citing taxes, and selling or cashing out is the norm, not the exception. It's the clearest real-world example of why a prize's tax bill matters as much as its headline value.
Photo: Thirdman / Pexels
So should you enter the HGTV Dream Home?
Sure, it's free and the odds cost you nothing but a minute a day. Just enter it for what it really is: a shot at roughly $850,000 in practical value, not $2.4 million, and a genuinely hard decision if you win. That mindset, judging a prize by what you'd actually keep rather than its sticker, is the whole idea behind how we score giveaways. If you'd rather chase prizes you could keep without a tax headache, start with the best everyday giveaways right now.