The newspapers and news shows have been filled with horror stories of extremely low home sales and continually depressing home prices. It is then no wonder that a new report shows that the country’s home ownership rate is at a level that’s lowest in more than a decade. Home ownership, then, is starting to become a very murky American dream.
The percentage of households owning their homes, says the Census Bureau, is at 66.9%. The only time the number is lower than that was in 1999, and even then the number is not too far – 66.7%.
The nation’s home ownership rate sat at 64% from 1985 to 1995 and increased dramatically in the Clinton and Bush administrations. During the height of the housing boom in 2004, home ownership rate even peaked at 69%. Right after that, and during the market crash, the number has declined gradually.
Homes that are currently vacant totals to 18.8 million, says the Census Bureau, or 14.4% of all homes and apartments in the United States. Primary residences that have been vacated and put up for sale are equal to 2.5% of the total while year-round rental units is at 10.3%
A lot of factors contribute to this declining rate in home ownership. The housing market is in huge trouble – and we are being reminded of that every time we open a newspaper or open the television to watch a news program: prolonged high unemployment, slowing home sales, falling home prices, tight mortgage underwriting, and a generally weak economy. Of course, the increasing number of foreclosures does not help the situation.
Some analysts say that the housing market problem is deeply rooted in the fact that people are unable to find or even hold on to jobs. Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist Mark Zandi has said that the only hope of the housing market for recovery is a renewed hiring by companies. And some are suggesting that Americans should maybe start switching dreaming of home ownership to job security.