Homeownership Rate Drops To A 13 Year Low: Why Try To Hold On To A House

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So homeownership has dropped to a 13 year low. This was reported by the Census Board. There is no surprise here. Many homeowners who were trying to get their loans modified have finally given up. And first time buyers do not want to take on the risk with the uncertainty of the job market.

The gains that were made during the housing boom, have all been wiped out. We are back at square one, and we have not even scratched the surface yet. There are about 2 million foreclosure homes waiting to sail down the pipeline.

The flip side of this coin is that there will be more renters which will drive rents upwards. The rental vacancy rate has fallen to 9.7% from a peak of 11.1% in 2009.

This is not as bad a situation as one would think. We have millions of houses sitting empty and we have rents going up. Why not put some renters in these vacant houses? We could give them short term leases such as 6 months. After 6 months we can go month to month. If we get half of what the market rent should be for the house, it's still a win. The neighborhood has less houses that were becoming eyesores. The drug dealers and other criminals have less houses to take over and run their activities from. And the local economy gets a shot in the arm.

If we really want to be aggressive, we could put low income families in the houses and use the "vouchers" to pay the landlord.

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