More than a quarter of Americans currently renting houses and apartments have no intention to ever buy a home, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
The survey, by real estate search site Trulia.com, found 27 percent of renters do not plan to ever buy a home. Although 72 percent still expect to buy eventually, that proportion is down from 77 percent six months ago.
Of those who do hope to become homeowners, two-thirds say they will wait two years or more.
I find this rather encouraging. Our national obsession with home ownership has been quite unhealthy and contributed to the current economic crisis. I rent and am quite happy with it. Houses are as often as not, money pits. I pay my rent, which includes utilities, and I cover phone and food. Why would I trade that for all of the hassle and expenses involved in actual property ownership? Not to mention the loss of freedom. If I want to move I can sever my ties here and make the necessary arrangements in probably ten phone calls give or take.
Germany has only 43% home ownership.
I’m with Ad Orientem. I’ve been a homeowner off and on for 20 years, and I have come to the conclusion that the so-called American dream of home ownership is highly overrated. I just hope that my husband and I can sell our modest abode and move to an apartment where we will not have to piddle with maintenance, etc. I would much prefer to read a good book or go out and do some volunteer work than to trim shrubbery.
Then again, as shown by the high foreclosure rate across the country, a good many homeowners who lost their homes had no business buying them in the first place. When my wife and I sold our townhouse in San Jose and had our present beautiful home built in Los Banos in 2003, we knew it was the retirement home of our dreams. When the foreclosure crisis hit, many of our neighbors were hard hit and lost their properties, but since we had made a very large down payment, we weren’t affected. Renters know, of course, that their rents can skyrocket, and this is happening all over the country.
My wife’s aunt, her mother’s sister, and her her husband lived in Boston for their entire adult lives.
He was a senior bank officer and she was the quite proper banker’s wife.
The could easily afforded a house, yet, they never owned a house, they always rented.