Dean Baker reports on recent Census Bureau data: >The release ... showed that homeownership rates are continuing to decline. The >rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 67.5 percent in the fourth quarter. >This is 1.8 percentage points below the peaks hit in the second quarter of >2004 and the first quarter of 2005. The current rate is the same as the rate >for the second half of 2000.
>The homeownership rate for African Americans fell to 46.8 percent (the >quarterly data by race is erratic), 2.3 percentage points below the peak hit >in 2004 and 0.4 percentage points below the 2000 year-round average. The 48.6 >percent homeownership rate for Hispanics is 1.5 percent percentage points >below the peak in the third quarter of 2007, but still 0.5 percentage points >above the 2004 rate. While African Americans clearly are worse off in terms of >homeownership than before the boom took off, at the moment it appears as >though Hispanics are still somewhat ahead. >This situation will deteriorate further in the next two years as the impact of >rapidly rising unemployment compounds the effect of mortgage resets and >plummeting house prices. Homeownership rates are likely to fall sharply for >all demographic groups. Even in an optimistic scenario, the unemployment rate >will be rising well above 8.0 percent over the course of the year.< -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
