Homeownership In America Essay

One of the notable issues with the U.S housing market is the extent to which the Government failed to stimulate home ownership rates in the long run. Historical trends in the U.S home ownership rates show stagnant growth in home ownership after the early 1960’s. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review indicated that homeownership rates remained relatively constant from 1965 to 1995, despite a wide variety of government policies aimed at stimulating home ownership (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review 2006). Following 1995, the U.S home ownership rates indicated significant improvements. According to the U.S Statistical Abstract, aggregate home ownership during the period 1995 to 2005 indicated a record high for the U.S housing market (Chambers, Garriga, & Schlagenhauf 2008). Matthew Chambers, a professor for Towson University,

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.

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.

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.

Meanwhile, yearly house price inflation rates in the top 20 cities are running in line with the national trend. The cities with the highest rates of increase are Seattle (+12%), Portland (+10%) and Dallas (+9%). Lower tier property prices appear to be more volatile than their high end counterparts in both Seattle and Portland. Meanwhile, the three cities with the lowest rates of house price inflation are New York (+3%), Washington (+4%) and Cleveland (+5%). Furthermore, rising house prices appear to be having an adverse impact on affordability. According to the National Association of Realtors, rising prices are offsetting higher disposable incomes and stable mortgage rates, and affordability has consequently been declining since January 2015. Partly driving the increase in prices is a lack of available supply of existing single family homes for sale. The number of months’ of unsold inventory was just below 4 in March and availability has been gradually falling since 2014. Additionally, there is a relatively tight supply situation for new single family homes for sale, which is also helping to support prices.

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.

Though in most areas of the country the housing market has rebounded even creating another balloon in the real estate market. Many lessons were taught with the collapse of the housing market. Having purchased my first home in 2015, I found out how selective mortgage lenders are now with providing mortgage loans. The lowering of the interest rate and the increase in employment has help stabilize the economy and revived the housing market. Dokko, Doyle, Kiley et all validated that America strayed too far away from the Thomas Rule when issuing interest rates and when valuing properties.

The desire for home ownership is something embedded in our DNA. Claiming property and owning a house is a critical part of the “American Dream.” Home ownership represents more than just a place to rest your head at night. Your home is the environment that serves as a setting for your journey through life. It’s the place of your children’s first steps, family birthdays, barbeques, amongst many other significant events. Your home is the backdrop that describes you and your family. Although many American’s were financially hurt by the trillions lost in the home equity market during the housing bubble, there is and will always be a desire to own a home. The most vital part is that American’s who lost their homes during the crash, learn from their past, so that they do not repeat a foreclosure.

We continue to believe that U.S. housing is in the early stages of a multiyear recovery in demand being driven by limited inventory of existing and new homes, historically low mortgage rates,

“By the end of 2007, real house prices had fallen by more than 15 percent from peak.House prices in many of the most over-valued markets, primarily along the two coasts, had fallen by more than 20 percent. Furthermore, the rate of price decline was

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 life that homeowners were accustomed to, the quiet enjoyment and peace of mind of homeownership suddenly became a nightmare. During this time America was faced with the weakest economic downturn it has experienced in more than eighty years. As the real estate market collapse was in high gear, most Americans were experiencing layoff from jobs. People were losing their jobs at an alarming rate and the unemployment rate hit double digits. Families were forced to downsize and cohabitant with families or be faced with the harsh reality of homelessness and living on the streets.

He contributes the stagnation of housing market, “America is not moving” in his own words, as an essential contributing factor to the upcoming housing crisis besides in lack of construction (2018). In particular, he sheds light on the statistics that a great number of US homeowners (79%) do not have the plan to relocate themselves in the upcoming years in which might intensify the extent of the housing crisis (2018). Thus, Kline concludes that since there are only insufficient amounts of new housing being introduced to the market, it emulates the difficulty for the new young buyers to become a homeowner (2018). With that being said, Kline’s statement is in line with the homeownership statistics published by the US Census Bureau (2018). With the statistical component for each age group of homeownership remains unchanged during last five years, householders age 65 years continue to be the largest constitute body in home ownership

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

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.