Real

Estate News

Largest Decline in Home Ownership Since Great Depression October

14, 2011

Many of us have parents and grandparents who

lived through The Great Depression. It might do us well to tune into those

times and see how our current situation fares in comparison.

During the 1930s, home ownership dropped over

4%. In comparison, today's economy has seen a drop of over 1%. While 1% of

everything might not seem like a big number to you, it's a start difference

from where we were just ten to eleven years ago. 2004 showed home ownership

rates near 70% of Americans and today, those figure rest closer to 65% in April

of 2010. While places like New York and the District of Columbia both fall

below the median with home ownership rates of 53% and lower (closer to 40% in

DC), other places like West Virginia and Iowa showed home ownership rates well

into the 70th percentiles for their residents.

As real estate professionals, we're always

curious about how trends tend to repeat themselves. We've seen an 80-year swing

from a cash-based economy to one fueled by credit. Today, we see many who would

love to be homeowners who either can't afford to make the plunge or who don't

qualify for traditional mortgages. So what's the next step?

We think education is key. Knowing your

financial thresholds, keeping a cache of cash in reserve and living within

means you can sustain regardless of your job situation and the national

economy. There's nothing we love more as real estate professionals than being a

part of helping people lock down part of their dreams when they become

homeowners. It's the ethical thing to do to educate our clients and help them

build a path to homeownership - it's the one thing we can do to help the

economy in the long run.

The Staff at San Juan Realty, Inc.