10/11/2011 - Home ownership suffers biggest drop since Great Depression

Source: SEATTLEPI.COM

When the dust settled from the housing boom and bust of the 2000s, the percentage of Americans owning a home had suffered the biggest drop since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
This nationwide trend, reflected less dramatically in Washington and Seattle, leads to a question: Has home ownership peaked?
“Absolutely,” answered Matthew Gardner, a Seattle land-use economist who works with developers.
People are looking at housing differently, said Patrick Newport, U.S. economist for the analysis firm IHS Global Insight.
“The changes now taking place are mind-boggling: the housing market has completely crashed and attitudes toward housing are shifting from owning to renting,” he said.  “While 10 years ago owning a home was the American Dream, I’m not sure a lot of people still think that way.”
Before getting to the reasons for this, let’s look at the numbers.

Full article here