(11/12/2010) Erate Exclusive - The rate of home ownership is at its
lowest level since 1999.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported the third quarter 2010 rate
of home ownership, 66.9 percent, hasn't been lower since it hit 66.7 percent
during the first quarter of 1999.
The last time the rate was at 66.9 percent was the fourth quarter of the
same year.
Driven by the easy-mortgage-money era, the home ownership rate
topped out at 69.2 in the fourth quarter 2004, about a year before the
housing boom began to go bust, burned by the same risky business that boosted the
rate.
Unimproved by flat home prices and record low interest rates, the rate of
home ownership has been hammered by foreclosures, weak demand, tight credit,
unemployment and an economy in slow recovery.
"New lows in mortgage rates have helped spark refinancing as well as
purchase loan applications, but sluggish job creation along with tighter
lending standards, resulting in fewer eligible homebuyers, will remain
impediments working against a sustainable recovery in the housing market,"
said Nancy Osborne, chief operating officer of Erate.com, a Santa Clara,
CA-based financial information publisher and interest rate tracker.
Even worse, the home ownership rate was lowest in
the West at 61.3 percent. The Midwest continued its run on the top position
with a 71.1 percent rate of home ownership. The rate was 69.1 percent in the
South and 63.9 percent in the Northeast.
Don't expect any improvements in the home ownership rate anytime
soon.
The federal home buying tax credit has ended.
Nearly one-quarter, or 23.2 percent of single-family homeowners with
mortgages, representing some 14 million homes, were underwater on their
mortgage in the third quarter, the highest it has been since Zillow began
tracking negative equity in 2009, according to Zillow.
Foreclosures are on track to number more than a million
this year along, says RealtyTrac latest
report.
Foreclosures, forcing prices down, prompted market
analytics firm Fiserv to recast home price projections. Earlier this year it
projected prices to rise 4 percent. It's last report projected a price drop
of nearly 8 percent from June, 2010 to June next year.
Out-of-work or under-employed consumers simply can't afford to buy and
many employed workers can't get past stiff lending requirements.
Zillowreported one in three Americans likely don't
qualify for a mortgage and half can't get the best rate.
The Census Bureau also reported 18.8 million homes, or 14.4 percent of
all houses and apartments in the nation, lie vacant.
About 2.5 percent of all primary residences are vacant and for sale and
10.3 percent of rental units are vacant.
Among regions, the rental vacancy rate was highest in the South, at 12.9
percent, followed by the Midwest's 11.5 percent rate.
Rates were lower in the West, at 8.1 percent and the Northeast at 7.4
percent.
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