Number of US homeowners reaches 20-year low [View all]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/24/us-housing-homeowners-rent-20-year-low



As homeownership rates drop to historic lows, low-income, middle-class and minority Americans feel the pinch of steadily increasing rents

Number of US homeowners reaches 20-year low
Jana Kasperkevic in New York
Wednesday 24 June 2015 14.49 EDT

The American dream is increasingly just that - a dream. Since the 2008 recession, owning a home has been a realistic goal for a shrinking number of people.

In 2014, the national homeownership rate slid for 10th consecutive year to 64.5%, reaching lowest homeownership in 20 years, according to a report released by Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Even as US is on the path to recovery and unemployment has dropped to 5.5%, homeownership rate still continues to fall. In the first quarter of this year, it has dropped to 63.7% – lowest quarterly rate since early 1993.

This drop in homeownership “erases nearly all of the increase from the previous two decades”, according to Chris Herbert, managing director of the center. He added that “the trend does not appear to be abating”.

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