Nationwide, the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent – or 76 million occupied housing units that were owned by their residents – from 66.2 percent in 2000. That drop-off of 1.1 percentage points is the largest since 1940, when homeownership plummeted 4.2 percentage points during the Great Depression to a low of 43.6 percent. Since 1940, the number of Americans owning homes had steadily increased in each decennial census due to a mostly booming economy, favorable tax laws and easier financing. The one exception had been 1980-1990, when ownership remained unchanged at 64.2 percent.
Despite declines everywhere, one sees a bright spot: our part of the country is still stronger in percentage of residents owning a home than other regions:
Homeownership rates decreased in each region of the country over the last decade. Midwesterners were most likely to own a house, at 69.2 percent, followed by Southerners at 66.7 percent, Northeasterners at 62.2 percent and Westerners at 60.5 percent.
Via Associated Press.
For an earlier post on the housing crisis, see The Mortgage Meltdown, Robo-Signing, and Foreclosures. As a people, we have always prided ourselves on a high rate of homeownership, and declines in the number of homeowners by percentage are (generally, I think) a bad thing.
Perhaps that makes me seem old-fashioned: the AP story on the census includes the view that many Americans no longer look on home ownership favorably (“The changes now taking place are mind-boggling: the housing market has completely crashed and attitudes toward housing are shifting from owning to renting,” said Patrick Newport, economist with IHS Global Insight. “While 10 years ago owning a home was the American Dream, I’m not sure a lot of people still think that way”).
Case by case, homeownership may not make sense for some people, but I find it troubling that our society might shift from a strong property-owning model (and just as troubling that there’s so great a gap between the races in homeownership).