most americans have most of their wealth tied up in a home that they own
I always hear this, and I know the stats say it’s like 60%, but to be quite honest I don’t fucking believe that. Who are these 60% of people that own their homes? I don’t know them. Some of my friends parents (not even all) own a home, and one of my friends. If I estimated based on people I know I would say around 1/5th of Americans own their home.
I mean it just depends on the area you're in and your background right? If you live somewhere with a higher COL the rate is lower (42-55% in DC, CA and NY) locally. Also it's calculated as (homes occupied by owner)/(all occupied homes).
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate.
If you added a third house owned by Family Fred and Family Francine, a married couple, who also live with the following adults who don't own the home: Francine's ailing mother, adult son Chuck, adult daughter Samantha and Chuck's boyfriend Tom who they let move in because he was going to be homeless otherwise.
66% home ownership rate in this neighborhood now. Mind you Fred and Francine can own 3% equity in the house and owe the bank 97% of the houses value: they still count as a home owning household.
EDIT: to clarify, most of my point here is that most people would say 1/11 of the people in this neighborhood, 3/11 of we're being generous, own a home. The rate is calculated in a way that maybe is misleading.
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate
Ah yes okay, so a 60% home ownership rate is a lie. The right way to calculate this situation would be a 20% home ownership rate, not 50%, as 1 in 5 people owns the home they live in.
Being deliberately miscalculated to tell a lie does explain why that number feels like bullshit.
I always hear this, and I know the stats say it’s like 60%, but to be quite honest I don’t fucking believe that. Who are these 60% of people that own their homes? I don’t know them. Some of my friends parents (not even all) own a home, and one of my friends. If I estimated based on people I know I would say around 1/5th of Americans own their home.
I mean it just depends on the area you're in and your background right? If you live somewhere with a higher COL the rate is lower (42-55% in DC, CA and NY) locally. Also it's calculated as (homes occupied by owner)/(all occupied homes).
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate.
If you added a third house owned by Family Fred and Family Francine, a married couple, who also live with the following adults who don't own the home: Francine's ailing mother, adult son Chuck, adult daughter Samantha and Chuck's boyfriend Tom who they let move in because he was going to be homeless otherwise.
66% home ownership rate in this neighborhood now. Mind you Fred and Francine can own 3% equity in the house and owe the bank 97% of the houses value: they still count as a home owning household.
EDIT: to clarify, most of my point here is that most people would say 1/11 of the people in this neighborhood, 3/11 of we're being generous, own a home. The rate is calculated in a way that maybe is misleading.
Ah yes okay, so a 60% home ownership rate is a lie. The right way to calculate this situation would be a 20% home ownership rate, not 50%, as 1 in 5 people owns the home they live in.
Being deliberately miscalculated to tell a lie does explain why that number feels like bullshit.