Homown Hell?

So, you want to own the home you live in?  You're not alone, but things are changing rapidly. Big decision and it can be painful to change your mind.  I can't give you any help here except to say that I personally prefer to own my home, which is astonishing considering I don't even live in the home I own - no one does, because as you know, it's an empty wreck (a FH).

But it is interesting to look at what is happening in the U.S.

US homeownership rates

"Homowns" (I made that up just now), are going down, renters are going up.  Here is what a report from Morgan Stanley said recently: “The combination of falling home prices, limited mortgage credit, continued liquidations and better rental options is fundamentally changing the way Americans live…moving the country toward a Rentership Society."

But Freddie Mac seems oblivious.

From freddiemac.com

California, it turns out, has the lowest homeownership rate in the country, save one.  Here's what our neighbors look like:

Homown rate in California, Oregon and Nevada

The hovel is my second home, having sold my first years ago. My perspective is that buying a house and working on it can be pure hell, or it can be wonderful.  For me it's been mostly hell, but on the other hand, I'm not done. The whole story has yet to be told.