A New Normal?
I’ve seen a number of bloggers address the home ownership rate, which at 66.5% is down to 1998 levels. But Susie Madrak highlights another number: an 11% vacancy rate. According to the CNBC post she points to:
The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. 471,000 homes are listed as “Held off Market” about half for temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. And no, the shadow inventory isn’t just 200,000, it’s far higher than that.
So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever more popular. Vacancies in the apartment sector have been falling steadily and dramatically, why? Because we’re still recovering emotionally from the toll of the housing crash.
Younger Americans have seen what home ownership has done to their friends and families, and many want no part of it. Credit has become very nearly elitist. Home prices, whatever your particular data provider preference might be, are still falling.
Like the New York Times article I wrote about yesterday, this is another piece of evidence showing us how profoundly our economy—indeed our country—has been changed by this recession and by the decades of growing income inequality that preceded it.
Enormous income inequality became the new normal. Then came this recession—we haven’t reached a post-recession new normal, but lots of signs suggest that what we’re moving toward is something that just a few years ago seemed unthinkable. That we have unemployment near or over 10% and the government doesn’t treat that as an emergency, that banks are allowed to just throw people out of their homes based on fraudulent paperwork, that the middle class is under a sustained attack.
The question is, where’s the tipping point at which the mass of working people in this country either accept that this is it—that their jobs, health care, and retirement will always be insecure; that they can’t expect to provide a better life for their children—or instead of accepting it, fight back, whatever that fight looks like?
Tags: economy, income inequality
The homeownership rate in the U.S. is nearly 69 percent — indicating that homeownership is within reach for more Americans than ever before. In fact, it can be as affordable as renting, and in some regions of the United States, it can be more affordable.
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