Ownership Foreclosure Society
By File this under “Depressing but Not Surprising”:
From 2000 to 2005, homeownership rates increased significantly only among households in the top two-fifths of the income distribution, those earning more than $46,883, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Homeownership declined for families in the bottom two-fifths of the income scale. In the lowest fifth — where families make less than $20,180 — homeownership was only 42.4 percent in 2005, which was 3 percentage points less than it was 25 years earlier and 26 percentage points below the national average.
Part of the reason is the structure of government subsidies, which are worth very little to low-income families but quite a bit to families with big incomes. Those well-off families typically do not need government support to buy a home but use it to buy bigger places than they would otherwise purchase.
June, according to the article, has been declared “National Homeownership Month” by President Bush. By that time, it appears that well over half a million homes purchased with sub-prime mortgages will be in arrears or foreclosure. Thank goodness we’ve maintained our bankruptcy laws so that people facing difficult economic circumstances can start ov– oh, wait. Never mind.