If that was their plan (which I doubt), it wasn't very effective. Americans move much more frequently than people in most other countries.
The most recent housing market collapse has made America much slower at readjusting to restructuring of the economy--for example, workers in Florida can't easily sell off their homes to move to a different location with greater job density, for instance. I'd like to see more data supporting your assertion.
> Americans move much more frequently than people in most other countries.
That fact may be true, but my point is that it may hide the effects of uncontrolled-for variables
With that regard, one need some other forms of statistics to compare if there is no such housing prison (which exists all over the world) and how would this different from the current situation.