Americans have long regarded owning a home to be largely synonymous with the so-called “American dream” although high homeowernship rates are not necessarily synonymous with a high-income prosperous society. Switzerland and Germany, for example, have homeownership rates well below that usually found in the US.
Nevertheless, the US government has long made increasing homeownership an important policy goal, and this has led to a number of large and costly programs and institutions including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FHA, and a plethora of federal regulations surrounding mortgage lending and banking.
Judging by the government’s own criteria, it has all been a failure.
According to the most recent homeownership data from the US Census Bureau, the homeownership rate in the United States is now at the lowest level it’s been since the bureau began tracking quarterly data in 1965.
As of the second quarter of 2016, the homeownership rate in the United States was, according to the Bureau, 62.9 percent. That’s exactly equal to the rate recorded during the third quarter of 1965 – nearly 51 years ago:
This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on Aug 3, 2016.
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