Millions of houses on the verge of foreclosure threaten to send homeownership to its lowest level in 50 years, according to new industry estimates.
Fresh projections say the rate could plummet to about 62% as early as 2012 and almost certainly by the end of the decade. Homeownership rates haven’t been that low since they hit 61.9% in 1960.
The share of households that own their homes has been sliding since the housing bubble burst in 2006. The rate fell again in the second quarter of this year to 66.9% ”” the lowest since 1999 ”” from a peak of 69.4% in 2004, the Census Bureau says.
Hidden in the “how to lie with statistics” truncated graph is the greater reality that the rate over the last fifty years is not all that variable. The range, after all, is only from 60% to 69%.
Owning your own home is part of the American dream, not an entitlement.
My grandparent’s weren’t able to get out of renting until Mom was in high school. They scrimped, saved, used Grandpa’s VA loan, bought a foreclosure that had a cellar but no frame, and built most of the house by sweat equity. I think we used to call this “character building”.
Looking at the foreclosures in my neighborhood (2 to date), these were folks who shouldn’t have been homeowners in the first place.