Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Losing Home Sweet Home

Here’s an interesting sidelight to the housing recovery: After homeownership rates dropped in the first quarter to their lowest point since 1989, they fell even further in the second quarter and are now at a 48-year low. The seasonally adjusted homeownership rate is now at 63.5 percent, according to statistics released by the Commerce Department yesterday. That is the lowest that figure has been since 1967.

But the news is not all bad. The total number of households in the United States grew to 117 million in the second quarter of 2015, up from 115 million in the second quarter of 2014.

Meanwhile, the number of renter households increased by 2 million. While that can be taken as a good sign – younger people at least have enough money to move out of their parents’ homes -  it’s also a signal that incomes aren’t keeping pace with rising home prices.

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