The US homeownership rate fell to a 25-year low in the fourth quarter of last year at 63.9% (seasonally adjusted) — the lowest rate since Q4 1989, according to Census data released today. So the rate of homeownerhip is back to where it started before the political obsession with homeownerhsip turned millions of good renters into bad homeowners as government housing finance policies pressured lenders to lower credit standards, income requirements, and down payments to what would otherwise have been unqualified home buyers. After a housing bubble, mortgage meltdown, financial crisis and a homeownership rate approaching 70%, we’ve returned to the homeownership rate of the mid-1980s.
If you recall the home ownership rate began to soar in the Clinton administration as standards were abandoned and lending was coerced. A lot if us warned that it would end in tears but those responsible (including Fannie and Freddie centimillionaires and Dem apparatchiks Franklin Raines and Jim Jones) were long gone. Only the pain and tears remained.
Hat tip Carpe diem.
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