A question I need some help with. Is there any information, statistics,

[Greyhound]

reports, whatever, giving the number or percentage of people that actually own their own home?

I mean OWN it, not renting it from the bank in the hopes that someday you will actually own it, but I've got the title, I owe nothing on it, ownership.

Thanks in advance,

[unblock]

1. you have a peculiar definition of "own"

if i put 10% down and buy a house with the help of a 90% mortgage, i OWN my house, period. i also owe a big debt, but i have all the rights of ownership, including 100% of the profit or loss in the value of the house.

if you're looking for how many people own their house debt-free, then you'll getting a very funny number. the reason is that mortgages are the cheapest form of debt available AND are (generally) tax-deductible. this means that even people who easily COULD pay off their mortgage often DON'T because it makes sense for them to hold on to the mortgage and invest the proceeds.

so the number you're asking for would show people who fully own their houses debt free and are either too tax-illiterate and/or too risk-averse to have a mortgage even though they don't "need" one.

[Greyhound]

3. Since I have been searching for that "funny" number for quite some

time, with no luck, I begin to suspect there is a reason it is so hard to find. To my "funny" way of thinking, as long as someone has the power to take it away from you, you don't own anything but the liability, miss a few payments and see how much you "own".

I also suspect that this "funny" number isn't really funny at all, as I'm afraid we will begin to see in the next couple of years.

Thanks for playing, and for the condescension.

[unblock]

5. rather than insulting my response, try using the correct terminology

i "own" a house when i buy it, even if with the help of a mortgage or three.

i "own" a liability when it is payable to me, not the other way around. in my case, i own the house, the bank owns the liability.

the bank "owns" a lien on my house. that does not give it ownership of the house per se, although it does give it the right to force the liquidation of the property under certain specific situations and legal procedures. note that they don't ever have the right to take ownership of the house, since their interest in it is limited to recovering the balance on the mortgage.

i "own" a house "free and clear" when there are no such liens on it. having said that, a lien could be placed on my house at any time for various reasons. a neighbor might be able to get one in a property dispute, or a taxing authority might be able to gain one for insufficient payment of tax liabilities.

what you are searching for is ownership free and clear of liens. however, it has the problems i mentioned above. you can own a house with a mortgage and have well beyond the assets to pay off the mortgage at any time. conversely, you can own a house free and clear but not have the means to pay property tax, which means you might soon lose the house despite the lack of a lien at the moment.

[Greyhound]

6. It is the terminology that is at issue. Words have meaning and by allowing

others to re-define them to suit their purposes opens the door to changing what is. It is this very mangling of language that enables the perversion of our society and values.

A quick example; How many amerikans think the "American Dream" is about "owning" your home and making lots of money? (check out the sig)

As for insulting your response, you apparently assumed I was ignorant of the meaning of language, even though I was very specific in what I was asking. You tried to redefine, or invalidate, my question.

[shrike]

15. Ahem

No, I'm not tax-illiterate. I'm just smart.

I have no mortgage, and the fact that I don't have to cough up $1,000 or more every month means that I have that much more money to invest each month, put towards a new car (I own mine outright and intend to pay cash next time) or home improvements. Oh, what a dummy I am.

BTW, I did it your way once upon a time and the tax benefits did not outweigh the crimp it put in my wallet each month to cough up a mortgage.

[uppityperson]

2. we used to, but the economy is tanking here and now have a small mortgage

I don't know how to find numbers, but wanted to say that anyways and to kick this. It would be interesting to know.

[Greyhound]

4. Your's seems to be exactly the scenario I'm looking into. What with

Das Kapitalists crowing so loudly and often about "home ownership" being at all time highs, makes me suspicious that the opposite is true, and I would like to know the truth.

Like your situation, everybody I know, especially those in CA but in all other parts of the country too, are surviving on borrowed $$ they're taking out of their homes, because there are no alternatives, employment-wise, and their current jobs just don't pay enough to live. They come up a little short each month, make up the difference on the credit cards, consolidate the CC debt to take new loans, using their home as collateral, etc., etc.

Now before the "liberals" start in on how people living beyond their means are just stupid and whatever happens to them they deserve, I will point out that, my friends and acquaintances have already sold all of the "extras", and are not "living it up" by any means, nor are they living in McMansions in a gated community. They work at least 50 hours a week, have sold the status car and drive older used cars, live on Taco Bell and whatever else is cheap, and typically haven't had a vacation in several years.

If the criminals-in-charge let things go, as it appears they will, I'm afraid we will continue to see significant increases in foreclosures each year, which in turn, will inevitably lead to declining prices as lenders let them go in short-sales, which will lower the values of other similar homes in the area, which feeds the cycle. Sound familiar?

Thank you very much for your reply.

[Sammy Pepys]

7. If I had to guess at such anumber....

I imagine it would be very small.

I know it's been batted around in this thread already, but I don't think you have to limit the definition of ownership to someone who owns their home completely free of liens.

[Greyhound]

8. I'm not trying to limit the overall definition, I just want to get some

sense of where this is going. I have numbers for overall number of homes owned, and percentages of loans by type, but the number of homes that are unencumbered assets is, so far, very elusive.

So, here's the deal, they have set the stage for a currency conversion. Once they move on that, it will free them to set up a dual US currency, one for domestic use, that they can be manipulated to control the sheeple, and another international currency that can be used to maintain hegemony. When that happens, look out.

[Sammy Pepys]

9. Who has set the stage for a currency conversion?

And where are you reading this?

[Greyhound]

11. The Fed and the other central banks.

They have not made their intentions a secret. In fact, the dual currency proposal has been brought up at least once in every session since the late 80's.

Now, we are moving toward the elimination of any 'hard' currency, what purpose would that serve?

[Adylia]

10. Census Data

You can get some information here:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/nationaldata.html

[Greyhound]

12. Wow, thank you very much.

498 pages in the first report, I have my reading schedule full for the next few days.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[Adylia]

13. Data

In table 2-19 you can find figures of owner occupied with mortgage and with no mortage.

You may be able to gather past reports to produce the figures that you're looking for.

And thank you for the welcome. I've been reading here a while but that was my first posting.

Enjoy.

[NMDemDist2]

17. welcome to DU Adylia!

:hi:

[shrike]

16. Don't have any numbers for you, but I own my home

free and clear. Best thing I ever did.

I remember reading comments by a financial advisor who said that people are so brainwashed that they "must" carry a mortgage to take advantage of "tax breaks" that when he actually lays the numbers out for them, of how much they will save if they pay off the thing they are amazed.

[progree]

14. Average percent of home owned is declining

Hi,

Somewhere I saw a statistic on average home-owner equity (as a percentage of home values) is actually been declining over the past several years. One would think the opposite would be happening with prices going up, but sadly, homeowners have been taking money out faster than home values have been rising!

I agree with those who say that a standard of 100% equity is unrealistic and not very meaningful -- like someone said, many financially well-off people tap some of their relatively low-interest tax-deductible home equity to invest or to tap for large unexpected expenditures in a home equity line of credit so as to leave their investments undisturbed.

But if home owners are owning less and less of their homes percentage-wise, we have a real problem!

I did look for that statistic but can't find it (average percentage of home-owner equity). Darn darn darn. Maybe someone can find it.