The Foundation's U.S. 2010 Census project has released a new report on home ownership in America between 2001-2011. Here are some of the report's main findings:
• Between 2001 and 2011, the overall home ownership rate dropped by one percentage point. However, this small net change masks a general rise in ownership that peaked in 2005 and fell after that. For certain kinds of households – the least-educated, poorest, and non-Hispanic black households – the first half of the decade brought little, if any, growth while the second half of the decade resulted in devastatingly large losses. As a result, the gaps in ownership separating black from white households and households at the top and bottom of the education and income distributions widened considerably in this decade.• The housing market collapse and ensuing Great Recession during the second half of the last decade also had a disproportionate impact on young adults, who typically begin the transition to home ownership in their late twenties and early thirties. In particular, Generation X (ages 25-34 in 2001) had the misfortune to pass a life-course stage typified by steep inclines in ownership during a period when becoming and remaining a homeowner was fragile. Generation Y (ages 25-34 in 2011), the most recent cohort to launch its housing career, is likely to fare even worse, as it faces numerous obstacles to entering the ownership market. Absent a dramatic shift in the economy and the housing market, the stalled progress of these cohorts threatens to have a permanent impact.
Read the full report.
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