“Homeownership declined to all-time lows during housing boom” says the headline on an Associated Press story at the Tribune’s Web site.
The article is a poster child for virtually everything that’s wrong with far too much of the real estate reporting in major media outlets.
Early in the article we find the following, directly contradicting the headline.
“… the U.S. homeownership rate rose steadily in recent decades. It peaked at 69.2 percent in 2004 before backing down to 68.2 percent at the end of the third quarter, according to the Census Bureau, which has collected the data since 1965.”
In other words, homeownership soared to all-time highs during the housing boom and has declined slightly sine 2004.
More idiocy follows throughout the article. This one’s a whopper:
“But that small decline masks a much larger plunge in the amount of equity homeowners hold. This figure, equal to the percentage of a home’s market value minus mortgage-related debt, fell to an average of 51.7 percent at the end of the second quarter, down from 62 percent at the end of 1990, the Federal Reserve reported, even as the average home value surged 139 percent during that period.”
Does the reporter even know what the word “amount” means? Clearly not. The amount of homeowner equity increased by trillions of dollars over the period indicated even though the percentage of homeowners’ aggregate equity declined. Add a trillion here and a trillion there – and it’s a loss according to this reporter.
And some of you wonder why I get testy when you cite the stupid, innumerate conclusions of media articles as proof positive of where the housing market in Chicago is at today!