Homeownership Continues a Steady Decline

Alongside the ""Dow Industrial"":http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=INDEXDJX:DJI plunge and news that the U.S. economy added 117,000 jobs, the ""Census Bureau"":http://www.census.gov/ released a ""statement"":http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr211/files/q211press.pdf signaling more troubled waters ahead for homeowners and Americans with the desire to one day live in their own houses. Homeownership rates fell to 65.9 percent, one percent less than rates for the same over the second quarter last year.

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Homeownership sits at its lowest levels since 1998, according to Census data, matching homeownership levels from 1965, the lowest on record. In 2004, some 69.2 percent of Americans owned their own homes, reaching new highs. The 65.9 percent rate fell lower than second-quarter results, which hovered at 66.9 percent, still beneath last-quarter rates, which stood at 66.4 percent.

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Occupied housing units came out to approximately 85.7 percent over the second quarter this year, while owner-occupied housing units came to possess a share of some 56.5 percent of total housing units, according to data.

As reported by ""CNNMoney"":http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/05/real_estate/home_ownership/, ""Morgan Stanley"":http://www.morganstanley.com/ recently published a research paper in which analysts Oliver Chang, James Egan, and Vishwanath Tirupattur claimed the homeownership rate falls beneath even the sour numbers reported by the Census Bureau.

""The combination of falling home prices, limited mortgage credit, continued liquidations, and better rental options is fundamentally changing the way Americans live,"" the news service reported the analysts as saying. ""We believe this change is only beginning and is moving the country towards becoming a rentership society.""

Despite the bad news about homeownership across the country, a ""_New York Times_/CBS News poll"":http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/business/30poll.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=homeownership&st=cse found that some nine in 10 Americans nonetheless regard homeownership as foundational to the American Dream, with 45 percent of respondents agreeing with the need for government involvement to boost and help the housing market.

The analysts said that homeownership at present should be flat-lining at 59.2 percent, a number more in line with 1965 numbers, according to ""OntheStreet.com"":http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/home-ownership-morgan-stanley-economy-2674520-1.html.