Americans ditch home ownership

[FarCenter]

The development of multi-family units - a category made up of flats and townhouses - jumped 25.3pc last month to an annual rate of 238,000, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. That helped drive overall construction on new homes up 9.3pc to an annual pace of 685,000, the strongest since the spring of 2010.

The better-than-expected figures were enough to cheer investors who have become accustomed to a flow of depressing news from the housing market since the bubble first burst in 2006. They also showed the degree to which the downturn is unwinding American homeownership, an objective of successive US governments since World War Two.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/8968616/Americans-ditch-home-ownership.html
[hr]Hopefully this also indicates a trend towards more compact development which will require less transportation fuel.

[snooper2]

1. I would rather not live like this

[FarCenter]

5. More like this?

http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr094.htm
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.

[snooper2]

7. Add a bunch of trees and a barn or two

good to go

[KansDem]

2. Hey, Boomers! Say "goodbye" to your nest egg...

I wondered if this would happen: securing a 30-year mortgage only to have your "investment" depreciate to the point you will not be able to retire securely even if you manage to sell your house. There could be more sellers than buyers.

And with SS and Medicare on shaky ground, what's a senior to do?

[greymattermom]

3. rent out rooms

The mega mansions in South Leawood and Overland Park will all become rooming houses.

[saras]

6. Been there, done that - you don't even need a mansion, the ability to judge people

OF course, many places have "three-unrelated-adults" restrictions on who can live in houses, no matter how big they are. They'll also expect you to build a concrete commercial parking lot for them, even if you only rent to bicyclists without cars.

[Missy Vixen]

4. Oh, yay

It's nice to know we won't be able to unload our house. We bought the house because (eleven years ago,) we were told the best path to securing our future was to own a home.