Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
The trend away from home ownership to renting appears to reflect not only the weakening of household finances, but a move away from long-held notions of home ownership.
"There's been this idea for years, a part of the American dream, that owning a home improves and strengthens communities," said John McIlwain, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Urban Land Institute. "But what we've learned over the past few years is that many people simply are not ready to own a home."
A new review of U.S. Census data conducted by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Associated Press shows 33.6 percent of American households are renters, up from the 31.6 percent of households who rented before the housing bubble burst in 2007.
That percentage increase translates to an increase in 3 million households that once numbered among the nation's homeowners becoming renters. That number is expected to at least double by 2015.
"We are getting a steady flow of foreclosure or short sale people who are joining the rental market," said Scott Condrey, managing broker and owner of Upland-based Hawes Real Estate Residential Property Management.
Condrey's company rents 25 four-plexes and 225 houses in eastern Los Angeles County and the West Valley, he said. Almost all of those properties have tenants, he said, and a house in Upland, Ca. rents for $1600 to $1800 per month. [Upland is basically considered a low rent area these days - Dan]
That amount is not much lower than $1,912, which Mortgage Lenders Plus, a lender directory, reports as California's average monthly home payment. But it's also widely reported that home loans are much harder to obtain than before the recession.
The post-recession trend portends not only changes in national and Southern California construction patterns - more apartments, fewer houses - but also a reversal of post-World War II suburbanization and near-universal aspirations toward home ownership.
"There's been a lot of talk about the so-called Millennials, the children of the Baby Boomers, they're not quite as attached to the single-family detached residence in a far suburb," said Jim Mulvihill, professor emeritus of geography at Cal State San Bernardino.
Mulvihill, who studies urban planning, remarked that young adults who grew up in places like the Inland Empire watching their parents commute to long hours to jobs in Los Angeles and Orange County would rather forgo such drives - and the high price of gasoline - by living in urban centers like downtown Los Angeles or the Gaslamp District in San Diego.
Mulvihill said roughly half of his students say they have no plans to ever have children and shrinking family sizes mean fewer people who aspire to a suburban lifestyle packed with Pop Warner Football and AYSO games.
Besides changing lifestyle patterns, Mulvihill said the past years' collapse of housing prices has jaded the widely-accepted view that home ownership is the best and safest investment an average person can make.
But in the short term at least, Condrey said most of his customers are looking for affordability.
"Right now, I would say the predominant force is dollar amount," he said.
Construction statistics show Southern California developers see more demand for apartments than houses.
The number of multi-family building permits issued during the first four months of 2011 in Greater Los Angeles is up nearly 28 percent when compared to the same period last year, according to the Construction Industry Research Board.
Los Angeles area permits for single family homes are down by about 17 percent.
Inland Empire building officials are issuing fewer permits for both types of housing, but the decline is steeper for single-family dwellings. Through April, single-family permits were down roughly 35 percent and multifamily permits were down by about 20 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/business/ci_18132174#ixzz1NoY36Hq6
Comment:
As the article said, things will only get worse.
Also, consider this. When the number of homeowners rise, so do real estate prices. When ownership decreases, prices fall. Home ownership is on the decline. Prices are indeed falling. If you can't afford to buy, then you have to rent. With more people renting, then rent prices rise.
So what we have here is an economy where home ownership is falling, and foreclosures rising. Real estate investors snap up these foreclosures at a greatly reduced rate. Since they have a lower mortgage rate than the previous owner, their monthly payments are lower. Flipping these houses is not as easy as it used to be, so rather than sell them, they rent them out. With rent prices rising, they can charge more for rent than their mortgage payments. We lose our homes and they make a killing. Indeed, there are many cases where people have lost their homes, a real estate investor buys it, and rents it back to the same family that lost it. The rent is lower than their old mortgage, but they are still renting, while some Judeo-Capitalist vulture has profited from their misfortune. And you can bet your boots that when real estate prices begin to rise again, that family had either better be able to buy their house back, or be prepared to move, because the owner will sell to make even more money.
Comrades, this kind of profiteering MUST be stopped. Until it is, the rich will always get richer by standing on the backs of the working class. Naturally, amongst the middle class workers, the majority of homeowners are White. But not for long. With the rising non-White population, combined with our declining population, eventually, more of them will be homeowners than us. Especially if you take into account the government programs that are supposedly there to help minorities become home owners. Programs that the White working class pays for through our taxes, yet we are excluded from.
This is one of the ANP's top priorities. The destruction of Judeo-Capitalism, usury, and financial slavery of all kinds. If all you want to do is play Nazi, there are a lot of groups out there you can join. But if you really want to be part of an organisation that is making real progress towards these goals, then become an ANP Supporter today. Hail Victory!
Dan 88!
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