Homeownership In America Essay

For many years, the idea that ones’ home being the largest investment was said as a complete sentence when in fact, it was only an incomplete sentence. Any duly licensed financial planner would finish that sentence by saying all investments are subject to market conditions, the value that investment could increase or decrease and other similar cautionary statements that their attorneys wrote to protect them. The American public only heard that their home was the largest investment and had never experienced, nor had their parents seen the value of their personal homes drop like they did in the past few years. They had never experienced the financial pain and although only a few years have passed, many have forgotten and are ready to jump right back into homeownership.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

Post-housing/financial crisis of 2007-2009, the housing market seems to be showing signs of improvement after great downturn. With the downturn in housing prices, many homeowners did not have enough equity to avoid taking a loss on the sale of their homes so they are sitting with home loans based off of higher-than-current mortgages. However, in November the National Association of Home Builders’ sentiment index jumped to 20, which is the highest reading in over a year. Demand for mortgages has also seemed to pick up a bit according to the Fed’s 4th quarter loan survey. Construction remains at historically low levels but has increased as of late, and the number of

The American dream is sought after by so many people within the United States. Many people spend an entire life time trying to build that dream and prepare for their retirement. The economic growth within the United States and our American government plays a big part in our future. In the past ten years, the American government has been on a roller-coaster with its housing market. The housing market started to go through a big decline in 2007; construction was falling at an all-time high. From 2000 to 2006 there were around 1.5 million homes that were built each and every year to replace the ones that were in disrepair. If the market was to keep the trend of 1.5 million homes

The economic decline has possible home buyers, especially first time home buyers, scared to invest anything into the housing market. With the fear of another depression in the back of everyone's minds, some businesses are attempting to clarify the pros of home ownership.

Housing and home ownership in the United States have continued to increase among different races even though it was hit by the great recession period. The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013. This is an increase when compared to

Housing starts for single family homes have been gradually recovering to an annual construction rate of 800K since the Great Recession, but they remain substantially below the 1.2 million peak level that prevailed during the previous expansion. Rising prices should seemingly encourage higher levels of homebuilding activity. The apparent lack of

As of December 2015 more single family homes entered the marketplace for sale and with sales volumes increasing as these properties appreciate in value. Today’s trend has recovered more than 50% when comparing the previous real estate market peak year prior to

The same way that President Clinton boosted about 67.5% of all American people could become homeowners in 1995, will be the same amount of people that lose their homes potentially putting children out on the street and increasing the unemployed homeless population taking up residence in tent cities, where is the hope now? Now is the time to act and include benefits to all homeowners that still believe in the America Dream. The Government and the Banks need to provide modification programs to all homeowners to reduce their interest rates to 4.75% regardless of equity or loan to values. If these homeowners who are currently 200% loan to value, care enough to strive to make every payment timely but are in loans that are coming due or ready to adjust, the industry owes these homeowners the right to a loan that they can afford and maintain regardless of the economy. Each homeowner in America is surrounded by foreclosed properties or short sales affecting their value and impeding any ability to successfully sell their properties.

Some may reason that the cause of this decrease in homeownership is a result of rising prices of housing, or blame heavy debts such as student loans. Meanwhile, others may believe the fast paced lifestyle of today does not allow for one to buy a house and settle down for life without some circumstance driving them to move to a different location. These all remain factors in the reduction of homeowners over the past decade, but the question still remains if these are the only factors. Perhaps today’s generation prefers the high density living and atmosphere offered by apartments, while previous generations prefered a more tight knit but small community. Modern living also often involves plenty of uncontrollable events, so it is sometimes necessary to give way in order to be successful in the long run.

In the article “How to fix wealth inequality”, Hecht (2014) raises houseownership as a factor to minimise wealth inequality, and brings up an issue over how the poor are more affected than the rich, while listing several factors that deter poor people from getting homeownership. According to Hecht (2014), despite declining house prices and interest rates, homeownership is out of reach for low income families because they are vulnerable financially in post-recessions. Moreover, there is ongoing progress on reducing education fees so that young people could graduate without being saddled with debts which deter them from having houseownership in the future. Throughout this article, he highlighted the importance of houseownership as being an asset which can be passed from one generation to the next thus reducing the economic disparity.

The American dream as I know it is the image of a young family where the husband works, the wife is able to be a stay at home mother, they have a girl and a boy, and a nice average sized house surrounded by a white picket fence. That image came about around the 1950s, but now it’s 2015. Times have certainly changed and from an economic point of view not for the better. 2014 was the year that homeownership for Americans 35 years and under saw another decline. It went from its’ 2013 percentage of 36.8% to 36.2%. For all ages dropped to 64.8% over the years. In addition, mortgage rates are low, but home prices are still rising. Why is the rate of homeownership declining in America? The cost of living has exponentially risen over the years, yet

The information has already been provided that sense the the housing market crashed people in general have been apprehensive to purchase homes. But even more so to the new generation of millennials. And even current events are shaping the future of home ownership, like the new revision on taxes. So does most certainly understandable to why people would be so wary of the dangers, and struggles of buying a home. And how it might be all together easier not to buy one.

Establish Credibility: According to US News, the great American dream of owning a home appears poised for a comeback. Real estate company Trulia reports that in many parts of the country, rents are rising while housing prices are falling, making buying a home more affordable. Trulia found that in 98 out of 100 major metropolitan areas, including Detroit, Atlanta, and Cleveland, buying has become more affordable than renting.” I think the mortgage catastrophe of 2001 left prospective home buyers afraid of buying a house without being extremely certain that is the right decision.

Declining price attract people with the easy loan facilities of their banks. And banks are ready with very high risk loans. This excess supply of home inventory placed significant downward pressure on prices. As prices declined, more homeowners were at risk of default and foreclosure. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller price index, by November 2007, average U.S. housing prices had fallen approximately 8% from their Q2 2006 peak and by May 2008 they had fallen 18.4%. The price decline in December 2007 versus the year-ago period was 10.4% and for May 2008 it was 15.8%. Housing prices are expected to continue declining until this inventory of surplus homes (excess supply) is reduced to more typical levels.