Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993 TAG: 9312130381
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NICK RAVO THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Housing analysts attribute the increase to the decline of mortgage rates, which have fallen to 25-year lows, and to home prices, which are not rising as much as they did in the '80s in most parts of the country.
They note, though, that homeownership rates, especially among people under 35, remain lower than in the early 1980s, evidence of unaffordable prices, stagnating wages, job insecurity and changing demographic trends.
The homeownership data track the percentage of housing units across the country whose occupants include the owner. Statistics are collected by the Census Bureau every 10 years and updated every three months through sample surveys of about 47,000 households nationally.
The bureau's statistics are then bought by various organizations, including the National Association of Home Builders, which analyzes the data in semiannual reports.
Gopal Ahluwalia, director of research for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, said the recent trend upward for homeownership was a sign that the economy remained weak but was improving.
"Economic growth is still at a sub-par level," he said.
Though they are not as publicized as much as short-term data like housing starts and sales, homeownership rates, many housing analysts believe, are important measures of the nation's overall economic health.
"If homeownership rates are declining it means we have a problem with affordability," Ahluwalia said. "If the percentage of people who live in their own homes is on the rise that obviously means our standard of living is going up."
As of June 30, the national homeownership rate was 64.4 percent, up from 63.9 percent a year earlier but down from 64.9 percent at the end of the second quarter in 1982 and 65.5 in the second quarter of 1980. There were 97.2 million households in the nation as of June 30 compared with 83.7 million at the end of 1982.
"If 1980 homeownership rates had maintained themselves, there would have been 2 million more homeowners by 1990," said William C. Apgar, the executive director of the Joint Center of Housing Studies of Harvard University.
Homeownership rates are rising the least among younger adults, those under 35. For that group the rate was 37.8 percent as of June 30, up from 37.6 percent in 1992 but down from 41.2 percent in 1982.
Some housing analysts believe the rates depict a growing division in homeownership between young and old.
"The gap in homeownership rates between young and old has widened, and there is nothing to suggest that it is going to diminish," said Peter A. Morrison, a demographer who has studied housing issues at the Rand Corp., a research institute in Santa Monica, Calif.
by CNB