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1Q 2013 US Census data
4/30/13, "US Homeownership Rate Drops To 1995 Levels," Zero Hedge
"When it comes to the US housing market there appear to be three
groups of people: those who who have either unlimited cash and/or access
to credit, and like the most rabid of bubble-chasing speculators, are
perfectly happy to engage in a game of Flip That House for a
short-term profit pending the discovery of a greater fool (often times
converting the house into rental properties as numerous hedge funds have
been doing on cost-free basis courtesy of the government's REO-To-Rent
program) - they are the vast minority of speculators;... and then there is
everyone else. Sadly, it is the "everyone else" that is the vast majority of the US population.
It is this "everyone else" that is once again being
forced out of housing due to both the ramping bubble in housing prices
making housing affordable primarily to those who buy with the intention
of flipping, and due to the lack of available credit to those who
actually need it (see sad state of commercial bank loans in the US).
Finally, it is this "everyone else" who comprises
the bulk of those who have been kicked out of the American Dream, whose
core pillar has always been owning your own home (with or without a
massive mortgage attached), not renting.
As the US Census Bureau reported earlier today, the US homeownership rates in the first quarter of 2013 dropped by another 0.4% to a fresh 18 years low, or 65% - the lowest since 1995!
That this progressive, ongoing decline in ownership is taking place
despite allegedly record home affordability is without doubt the most
troubling feature of the economic "recovery" which has forced ever more
Americans to shift away from owning and into renting, as can be seen by
the next two charts showing the median asking rent and sale prices for
vacant rent units and for sale units. While home prices have a long way
to go still countrywide (excluding the occasional regional bubble market
such as LA and NY), rents are already at record highs, which explains
why it is every hedge fund's dream to become a landlord.
However, it is only a matter of time before zero-cost subsidized
rental pass thru units owned by hedge funds who can therefore keep the
rental asking price as high as they wish, forces out more and more
Americans out of the Adjusted American Dream, where renting is the new
buying, and leads to ever more people living in the streets.
Although, we are confident, it will be merely a matter of time before
this, or some other administration, simply unleashes a "street living
tax" - after all, "it is only fair" to apply austerity to hobos next.
Because it has worked so well with the billionaires and trillionaires..."
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Ed. note: This method helps get rid of the annoying middle class.
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