The California Homeownership Dream
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The home-ownership rate in the United States is percentage of homes that are owned by their occupants. In 2009, it remained similar to that in some other post-industrial nations with 67.4% of all occupied housing units being occupied by the unit’s owner. Home ownership rates vary depending on demographic characteristics of households such as ethnicity, race, type of household as well as location and type of settlement. In 2018, homeownership dropped to a lower rate than it was in 1994, with a rate of 64.2%.
The California Homeownership Dream
Since 1960, the homeownership rate in the United States has remained relatively stable having decreased 1.0% since 1960 when 65.2% of American households owned their own home. Additionally, homeowner equity has fallen steadily since World War II and is now less than 50% of the value of homes on average. Homeownership was most common in rural areas and suburbs with three quarters of suburban households being homeowners. Among the country’s regions the Midwestern states had the highest homeownership rate with the Western states having the lowest. Recent research has examined the decline in homeownership rates among households with “heads” aged 25 to 44 years, which fell substantially between 1980 and 2000 and recovered only partially during the 2001-05 housing boom. This research indicates that a trend toward marrying later and the increase in household earnings risk that occurred after 1980 account for a large share of the decline in young homeownership.
In locations with a lack of affordable housing, such as New York City, San Francisco, London, or Shanghai, it may be impossible for first-time home buyers to find starter houses close to the city center. To assist such home buyers, local authorities such as that in Santa Cruz, California, have re-zoned previously commercial areas for residential housing specifically to allow developers to build starter homes. The Wall Street Journal tracks median home purchase prices of starter homes as part of its real estate index. Cities, whether suburban or the central core, have generally moved to a trend of master planned communities where large tracts of land are set aside for one complete build-out in order to maintain low costs to the developer and provide essential affordable and entry-level housing. Commercial and retail components are almost always included in these starter home communities.
