Even if mortgage rates and home prices are hitting rock-bottom levels, total home ownership rate is still down to 66.3% – just 0.4% shy of the previous quarter’s 65.9%.
That 66.3% is the second lowest home ownership rate in 13 years, and the move up from 65.9% to 66.3% is the only gain in two years.
So what’s up? Why is it that even abysmal home prices coupled with extremely depressed mortgage rates have failed to get more Americans into their own homes?
Four things: hopes that prices will go down lower, stricter lending rules, hard financial times and a glut of stalled foreclosures.
One, people are holding on to their money with the hope that real estate prices will continue to go down. Two, banks and lenders are holing up in fear of bad debts. Three, everyone just doesn’t have the money to buy a home even if they wanted to. Four, foreclosures backed up as far back as 2010 kick people out of their homes and depress housing prices even further.
What’s worse is that home ownership may even go down lower as foreclosures turn to evictions. That’s something that will turn 2012 into a very ugly year for America and will add even more fuel to the Occupy movements that are growing across the nation.