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Death Of The Middle Class: Homeownership Rate Drops To 29 Year Low As Average Rent Hits Record High
Overnight Gallup released its latest survey which confirmed just how dead the American Dream has become for tens if not hundreds of millions of Americans.
According to the poll, the number of Americans who do not currently own a home and say they do not think they will buy a home in "the foreseeable future," has risen by one third to 41%, vs. "only" 31% two years ago.
Non-homeowners' expectations of buying a house in the next year or five years have stayed essentially the same, suggesting little change in the short-term housing market.
As Gallup wryly puts it, "what may have been a longer-term goal for many may now not be a goal at all, and this could have an effect on the longer-term housing market."
Shortly thereafter, the US Census released its latest homeownership data, which confirmed that for what is left of America's middle class, owning a home has become virtually impossible, with the homeownership rate tumbling from 64.0% to 63.7%, which is tied for the lowest historic print since the first quarter of 1986, with the only difference that then the trendline was higher. Now, as can be seen on the chart below, it isn't. At this rate, by the end of the 2015 and certainly by the end of Obama's second term, the US homeownership rate will drop to the lowest in modern US history.

There is no surprise why this is happening. As Bloomberg notes, "entry-level buyers are struggling to save enough money to purchase homes as gains in U.S. real estate prices outstrip increases in wages, while mortgage lending remains tight. The median household income in March grew 2.1 percent from a year earlier while the median home price gained 7.8 percent in the same period. Last year, the share of home purchases by first-time buyers fell to the lowest level in almost three decades, according to the National Association of Realtors."
“The No. 1 issue in the housing market right now is wages,” said Jay Morelock, an economist with FTN Financial in New York. “For the housing recovery to be sustainable in the long run, we have to see wages increase at a faster pace.”
Now that, as we have shown previously, is a big problem especially for non-supervisory workers in America, whose nominal wage growth is now rapidly approaching the level last seen just after the great financial crisis.
But the death of the middle class is not bad news to everyone: landlords, of which private equity firm Blackstone recently became the biggest in the US, are reaping unseen profits courtesy of runaway inflation in at least one item: rent. From Bloomberg:
As homeownership falls, demand for rental housing is booming. The vacancy rate for rented homes in the U.S. fell to 7.1 percent in the first quarter from 8.3 percent a year earlier, the Census Bureau report showed. It was the lowest first-quarter rate since 1986. The median monthly asking rent was a record $799, according to the agency.
Words, however do not do the relentless increase in rent justice, so here is something far better. Charts.

The same, only broken down by region.
Our condolences dear former members of what was once the world's most vibrant middle class and is anything but any more. Our only advice: BTFATH as you turn off the light, and pray that central banks never lose control of this so-called "market" or else having any roof above your head will promptly become an unaffordable luxury.
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who cares....
the Dow is up again....
anybody here really think the mega-REIT oligarchs are ever gonna let this situation be fixed meaningfully?
Not until we all decide to do some monopoly trust busting!!!
Bah!
Clickbait.
What is .3% over 29 years? 1000 less homeowners overall?
Here is the less-magnified report graph:
" -------------------------------------------------- "
BFD.
Obamy is living the black amerikan homeowners dream.
Big house, no rent and plenty of ho's for everyone.
Sustainable? For sure, why not?
(One of the many things the Fed can't control)
This isn't all due to Blackstone, et. al. It is definitely an economy-driven trend. In three very nice zipcodes near me (some of the best in NJ), there are litterally no rentals available sub 4000 per month. On the otherhand, there are perhaps 25 houses available at mortgages that would price out at 3000 a month, assuming someone got an 80/20.
duplicate
There has to be a price correction coming, it's impossible to have fewer buyers and ever increasing supply without a correction.
In some places more than others as Austin is still booming...
But I know u would think with all those baby boomers and no one to sell to.... And all the banks from the subprime issues still have houses peeps living in mortgage free and lots more to dump on the market.
And u can guarantee if we have another housing boom that if the HUD supporting gov has anything to do with it no one is going to get a nice house with low interest rates at 30 fixed! And if we go to war against the world to blame it on the American peeps then who is going to purchase American homes?
Lots of peeps running from Cali probably soon.....
this is all per design, I dont expect anything positive from the elite
they are done with Merica
What's the population up in 30 years? 100 million?
---
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
FROM THE OBAMAS, THE BUSHES , THE CLINTONS, THE REAGANS AND YOUR FRIENDS AT THE NWO
Thank you for not giving all the credit to the current President.
The author plays it a little loose with the statistics. You still have 43% expecting to buy in the next 5 years. Some of those who don't foresee owning will likely change their minds once Housing Bubble 2.0 pops. The dynamically cyclical RE market that was once confined to CA and a few other areas is now a reality almost everywhere. Anything that can be financialized, which is EVERYTHING, is now subject to a violent business cycle. Wall Street wouldn't have it any other way.
MOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!
You do NOT own your home never have. Never will. Unless the most regressive tax in world , property tax, is eliminated.
School property taxes for the homeowner with no kids in school is a sick joke - free school for the renter and their kids (yes, the landlord pays it and its built into their rent, unless of course the rent is section 8).
great point.
why pay for insurance, ridiculous never ending always escalating realty taxes, upkeep and maintenace just so you can be a debt slave with no freedom to move if your job is liquidated or god forbid climate changes?
You need a home with some space and a place to keep your guns.
The taxes on real estate is proof that you never own your place outright. Government good, real freedom bad.
If you didn't make it you shouldn't own it.
To your point, I know guys that are < 3 years from retirement who sold their homes, pocketed the cash and they are renting because of the insurance and property taxes. One guy that I know was paying $8k a year in property taxes on a 2,500 sq ft home. Then throw in another $1,500 for insurance plus upkeep and maintenance.
Don't move to TX. I have no kids and pay out the ass. Of course we have no SIT. I'm honestly torn with the debate. I do have an interest in our future, working citizens being educated and successful but I also see the massive redistribution of wealth taking place.
We found a "middle". But the middle of what?
Nobody made land so it shouldn't be owned by anyone. If you want to occupy land and deprive others of its use you need to pay society a rent. That's the property tax.
You trying to get the Black Hills back tonto?
A minority has taken possession of most of America and are charging everybody rent for it. That rent belongs to society. If society took that rent we wouldn't need any other taxes
Sounds good in theory, until you realize what you're espousing is basically communism ("Society" aka the government owns all the land). And we all know how that works out.
No, communism is the complete control of all production. In the system I am suggesting you pay rent for the land and after that you have complete control of your business. No further taxes.
The current system of progressive income taxes is much more like communism. The harder you work the more you have to hand over to society.
Interesting that I make two posts both saying basically the same thing. One gets many down arrows and the other gets none. Some very confused people on this board.
Isn't that the fucking truth. Thing is, out of control property taxes are a huge reason why no one wants to own any home and the same reason why rent is high. But hey, gov't won't reign in spending. So it will continue to hold the gun on property owners.
So true, if our property taxes keep going up at this rate, about $1200 each year, soon we will not be able to afford to own it! That is why people have to charge the high rent in the first place.
"or else having any roof above your head will promptly become an unaffordable luxury."
not true. "buy" a home. dont pay mortgage. free roof over head for at least 5 years.
If you really want to help people out, why don't you provide a link, seriously...
allow me
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-squatters-here-are-millions-americ...
I take issue with what Tyler says about "living on the backs of the banks" because I believe they got paid, and then some. edit because if that were true we'd be talking about the death of the bankers and too big to fail middle class. Many, many of these mortgage debts were extinguished by unregulated insurance innovations that were sent to the taxpayers via bailouts and QE.
The bank never puts up any consideration to begin with. The promissory note is handled as a fully funded check by the bank. See USC 1269. Banks cannot lend depositors money. They can sell the mortgage on the secondary market for a instant cash out. All that paper that these people are living off of the back of the "banks" from country wide and others was mostly absorbed by Bank of America and than slowly sold off to Freddie and Fanny. So yeah the US tax payer is sort of on the hook for it but not really since the Federal Gov't just barrows from the Federal Reserve in Fiat currency. The chain of Title got totally clouded by the MERS system and most of the Mortgage brokers burning their docs to avoid jail time. So the 9/10th (possession) of the law is applying because the paper work is fucked or non-existent. Then you get into the pooling and servicing agreements that these mortgages were packaged into you will find many Mortgages were included after the closing date of the Pooling and Servicing agreement. Total mess from 2002- 2008. Bottom line if you ever were part of Country Wide your title is fucked, If your servicer changed multiply times, your title is fucked.
And given the very first opportunity to break the law they did by ignoring the terms specified in the Pooling and Servicing Agreements. That can't be fixed without massive tax consequences, so lets not forget how much tax cheating went on. The peddlers of these "shitty deals" got the tax benefits of REMIC and REIT but totally ignored the laws and nobody at IRS or SEC etc. could ever figure it out.
Know any good articles on this topic? "The Big Short" was a great book on this
there's a ton of them out there...seems like a few thousand scandals ago.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=REMIC+fraud&ia=videos
Agreed, The fact the banks conjure up the 'money' in a book entry then charge you interest on the money they never had is about the most insulting, and criminal thing I have ever heard of. Most dumbshit Murikans think the loan is from saver deposits. Is that sad or what? Then after paying all your rotten life they come and take it for non payment of taxes when your old and feeble, make you homeless and then the cops kill you for camping in a 'public' park without a license. Maybe taking this too far? It's my post! LOL...
not too far, freaking reality for too many!
Yes I agree. If you buy the house then for the most part you can control it. Rent includes everything a home owner pays and then some. Rent money is spent money. If you "own" the house then you have way more choices as opposed to renting where the landlord can kick you out in 30 days or less for non payment or a variety of other reasons. A bank that owns your mortgage has a vested interest in keeping you in the house. Leave the power on, water on, lawn cut etc. and the house maintains some value. eventually you will get forclosed for non payment but it will take a while, maybe years. I know a guy who is on his sixth year without paying the mortgage.
where did you get the idea that a bank has a vested interest in keeping you in your house? The bank doesn't give a shit. In fact they don't even own the mortgage but service it. No one knows who owns it, not even the bank servicer. It's been diced sliced and maybe even sold to overseas countries, held in some pension plan. The concept of bank care is as outmoded as a caring management or functional labor unions all working in sync to preserve the goose that lays the golden egg. Dead, finito, bye bye.
The fact that someone has lived in his house for six years without paying a mortgage is not due to his caring for it.
Its true to some extent if the house is under water, they want you in it to maintain it and will be in no rush to forclose. A good lawyer can gum up a foreclosure for many years as well if you aren't under water.
Yeah I new York you are starting to pass the statue of limitations for some of the people that stopped paying and no foclosure action was filed.
It's the war on money.... (As in what you work for, so in effect it's class warfare...)
http://galeinnes.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-war-on-money.html
Entirely a planned exercise.
On that scale, it has to be. SOcial engineering on a grand scale.
Refined to it's modern day dystopic mastery by the gremlins at tavistock...
Been to the UK lately? WHat a freaking middle class disaster...
...
Okay, for music, especially guitar afficianadoes...guitar starts at 1:52 ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhJjChT1nq4
so much for Mr. Magoo's and CONgress plan back circa 2004....for everyone to own a home. Drop rates, sell to anyone that can fog a mirror, bundle shitty trannches and sell them overseas. Boy thqt worked out well.
$799/month for a house, an apartment, or a "unit?" Unclear from above. House rents would presumably be higher than apts.
Craigslist is the best place to see what rent rates are going for...
Rent is just another 4 letter word, because you will truly never own your home, it's probably better to pay rent if it's cheaper, otherwise you are locked into a long term obligation called a mortgage, and of course the royals figured out long ago that the money wasn't made off of the land, but rather collecting taxes off of property.... (by any means) Now they shifted there thinking and are directly attacking the "Cost of Living", indeed it's become very obvious....
$799/month will get you a cup of coffee and a 150 sq ft studio in the greater NYC area.
IF you're lucky!
Raise those rents. Make these "slackers" buy a house.
$799, the exact amount uncle sam pays, what a coincidence. the reason rents keep going up is because the free shit army always gets moar
The sad part is, most people think the free shit army are those people on welfare (But a lot of them are vetrans or too old to work, etc), when in fact it's the Oligarchy at the top spending ALL YOUR Tax dollars and always mandating new ways to make you pay more, but wait, it gets better, and then they draft free trade agreements to ensure our lives are a miserable hell....
EXACTLY. the wal mart family was begging for moar ebt free shit just the other day. it always flows to the maggots. if it didn't the poor wouldn't get JACK SHIT.
+300000
They figure out exactly how much extra money we will have each year and come up with some charge or tax to suck it up so that all of us are always just treading water, going nowhere.
The Ponzi scheme has nearly run its course. The guilty will get bail-outs and the serf's will sink a little further into the mire, or that's what the big players assume.....
Once TTP is in place another layer of jobs will be pealed offshore - this game is narrowing faster and faster as supervisory and tech jobs go away as well with H-1B going into full force mode
small % of population will have a long term future
The giant sucking sound out of the north?
Obama's new trade deals with Europe and the Pacific are a Corporate Coup d' etat! Once in place, corporate power will stand above sovereign governments and the people who elect them. The Trade Laws stand above national law. Voting becomes meaningless as corporations and Obama's Trade Laws stand like a new Soviet Union. Corporations can sue nations and peoples in courts where Corporate CEO's sit as judges.
Clinton's trade deals began the end of American middle class.
Obama's deals will end democracy.
Why do these deals come under democractic rulers? BECAUSE, the liberals will then support these deals, while Republicans supported them all along. Democracts are used to push through trade deals that otherwise would NEVER be accepted.
America, one nation, one political party. Republicrates.
plus technology, that our taxes develop, takes more jobs than offshoring and visas combined
till you punish wall street it won't change.
Fucking with uneducated people is one thing.
Fucking with educated people will get you hurt.
I dont' think you really need to screw with the educated people, they are a doing a fine job of hurting everyone quite well in Washington... Enjoy your Obamacare...
I don't think you grasp the severity of change coming our way.
Lincoln said it best.
And I think you're smart enough to figure it out.
I think its the new kids...they do not marry...they want to live in an apartment....its too much responsibility to own a home.....to old school....let someone else fix it....
Buffett and Blackstone will make great landlords for years to come. No way will Buffett allow those Trailer Parks to deteriorate rapidly to slum conditions. Hopefully Blackstone can get the Rents they require from foreign visitors.
Meanwhile tree-houses are the preferred accomodation of those Amurikans who have temporarily fallen out of the loop.
middle class RIP
I'm planning on living in a bus. F them.
I hope no politicians see this article, because they'll do something stupid like mandate banks supply zero down payment loans or no income verification loans or special minority only loans .......oh wait, they did that already, never mind.
Do you really believe that any politician, regardless of spot or stripe, gives one fuck about minorities?
That was a lame excuse to steal money from people who don't have any by giving it to them first.
Why should I buy a house. A homeowner gets raped by all the expenses and taxes. Property taxes are the worst. Teachers want more money for doing a crappy job teaching....and they then blame the parents.
I completely agree. I made the worst decision of my life 4 years ago and went in on a 25 acre parcel in Chenango County, NY. Vacant land...the taxes friggin kill you. I can't imagine actually having a home on the parcel. Been unable to sell for 2 years now as Cuomo is a Marxist tyrant who swore off 1/2 the population.
If you don't like paying rent, mortgage, insurance, or prop taxes, go live in a van down by the river.
Obama has acheived more in the last 7 years than the Soviets ever could have dreamed of.
yeah..buying a home is a fucking TERRIBLE idea if you have a white collar career, especially if you work in a STEM field.
its real easy to watch your job EVAPORATE instantly
One of the lessons of the Nazis is that their rise to power was driven by economic despair.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
You own the home, but lease the land from the monarchy.
"You own the home, but lease the land from the monarchy."
Try renovating your garage without getting permission.
They own the home as well.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
They are welcome to "inspect" my guillotine.
protocol #11 - Control the education system to spread deception and destroy intellect
protocol #16 - Keep the masses in poverty and perpetual labor
If the "Protocols" be a hoax, they are the most prescient hoax in history.
There may not be a conspiracy, but there certainly is a blueprint.
The Jewish State - 1896 Theodor Herzl's Program for Zionism
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
"Home sweet home" I mean apartment sweet apartment.
Welcome to the new and improved Omerica!
maybe the problem is not wages failing to rise but instead housing prices rising at all.
Welcome to Denver, where you can rent a Tuff Shed for $1500 a month not including parking or utilities....
You gotta love the term "Home Ownership". Everything about this nation is bullshit................ LOL
The homeownership rate chart would be even more stunning if it showed interest rates on the other y-axis. If ZIRP can't goose homo rates...
Simply unaffordable
How can it be permissible
She compromise my principle, yeah yeah
That kind of love is mythical
She's anything but typical
She's a craze you'd endorse, she's a powerful force
You're obliged to conform when there's no other course
She used to look good to me, but now I find her
Simply unaffordable, Simply unaffordable
Her loving is so powerful, huh
It's simply unavoidable
The trend is irreversible
The woman is invincible
She's a natural law, and she leaves me in awe
She deserves the applause, I surrender because
She used to look good to me, but now I find her
Simply unaffordable, Simply unaffordable
Simply unaffordable (She's so fine, there's no tellin' where the money went)
Simply unaffordable (She's all mine, there's no other way to go)
She's unavoidable, I'm backed against the wall
She gives me feelings like I never felt before
I'm breaking promises, she's breaking every law
She used to look good to me, but now I find her...
Simply unaffordable . She's so fine, there's no tellin' where the money went
Simply unaffordable She's all mine, there's no other way to go
Her methods are inscrutable
The proof is irrefutable, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
She's so completely kissable, huh
Our lives are indivisible
She's a craze you'd endorse, she's a powerful force
You're obliged to conform when there's no other course
She used to look good to me, but now I find her...
Simply unaffordable (She's so fine, there's no tellin' where the money went)
Simply unaffordable (She's all mine, there's no other way to go)
Simply unaffordable (She's so fine, there's no tellin' where the money went)
Simply unaffordable (She's all mine, there's no other way to go)
"median household income in March grew 2.1 percent from a year earlier while the median home price gained 7.8 percent in the same period."
The American economy is dead, as long as wages can't keep up with inflation in housing and necessities. The middle class WAS the consumer who fueled growth. Now we have the 1% earning ALL the asset gains, while workers see declining real wages. How do you build an economy where demand shrinks?
The middle class or what's left is being consumed, amazing how inept and dumb everyone has become. Agenda 21 is in full swing make no mistake.
RE prices need to fall at least 90% if Millenials are expected to even have a slight chance of considering buying property to start a family
Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen can declare, "Mission accomplished" as they make homes increasingly unaffordable in their purposeful mission of reinflating bubble prices everywhere.
Cause they are trying to help the little guy! Hahahahahaha
This is only a problem if you're on the sell-side. People have figured out that houses are durable consumer goods. It makes no sense to buy one unless you have no concern about where your next paycheck will come from and don't plan on moving. Aside from retirees and gubmint or bankster parasite, there aren't many such people any more. Nobody under 40 can plan on staying in the same city for 30 years, much less the same job.
We weren't all living in one-room cold-water tenements in 1986 either. We'd be in clover if 1980's homeownership rates were Uncle Sugar's biggest economic problem.
people are buying like crazy in Las Vegas!
http://viewlasvegasrealestate.com/