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Journal Article
The rise in homeownership
After decades of relative stability, the rate of U.S. homeownership began to surge in the mid-1990s, rising from 64% in 1994 to a peak of 69% in 2004, near which it has hovered ever since; this translates into 12 million more homeowners over the period. Understanding the forces behind such trends in homeownership is important not only because supporting homeownership has been an unequivocal public policy goal for decades but also because homes are an important part of people?s net worth and, therefore, can affect their spending, working, and saving decisions. ; In this Economic Letter, we ...
Journal Article
Property debt burdens
With households' property debt surging, the use of adjustable-rate mortgages increasing, and interest rates rising, some observers have raised concerns about households' ability to service that debt. To gain a better idea of the distribution of property debt burdens and how it has changed over time, this Economic Letter presents data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which contains information on different types of property debt, debt service, and income. The SCF data show that property debt burdens in 2004 were only slightly higher than they were in the mid-1990s. Also, although ...