Home Ownership Matters

Home Ownership was recorded at its highest in 2008 and since then has been falling from state to state even though according to National Association of REALTORS®(NAR) research, 70 percent of Americans say home ownership is important to them. But current social and economic forces are not in alignment to encourage home ownership. Home owners continue to lose homes to foreclosure because unforeseen circumstances including job losses, pay reductions and unplanned high healthcare costs.  Others anticipated being able to refinance to escape the payment of crushing mortgage payments due to high interest rates but discover they are unable to take advantage of now dramatically low t rates because the value of their homes have plummeted and their properties cannot appraise for enough to satisfy loans taken out at the time of purchase of the property.

Unemployment is at 9 percent. No one in this group can take advantage of attractively low interest rates to achieve home ownership. (A job is a necessary requirement for a loan.) Among the employed, stringent lender requirements, an unwarranted backlash from the mortgage crisis stands in the way of their qualifying for new loans. New proposed legislation offers no hope. Portions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act like the Qualified Residential Mortgage requirement could solidify a requirement of a 20 percent down payment on all residential mortgages. Ironically, that requirement would immediately put home ownership outside the reach of a significant number of people. That group would include all the fully employed workers whose incomes have never and will not now allow them to save enough for any such down payment. Economic uncertainty keeps yet another group from embarking on one of the biggest financial undertakings of a lifetime because of the perceived greater risks than usual. So even though 70 percent of Americans value homeownership, home ownership remains in decline.

Home ownership was at 69.2 percent (the highest ever) across the nation in 2008. The rate has continued to fall since 2008 and currently the average is 59.9 percent, with some states recording percentages well below 50. But all is not yet lost. Consumers can still find reasons to be thankful. Strong advocates of the American dream exist even outside the group of would-be homeowners. The National Association of REALTORS®, since its inception has been an advocate that continues to champion the cause of home ownership as one of the foundational beliefs embedded in the Preamble to the1913 Code of Ethics.  REALTORS® should recognize that the interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing . . .

National Association of REALTORS® continues to champion the cause of home ownership by challenging laws oppositional to home ownership in the legislature. To build awareness and highlight the importance of  owing one's home, NAR has taken the issue on the road. The association is also supporting local associations as it visits offices on its bus tour across the country. The bus stopped at the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® office in Albuquerque in October.