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FIGURE 6: U.S. Homeownership Peaked in 2004,, Where Will It Stabilize? <br />r7n <br />'~ <br />69 <br />68 <br />_ bb <br />� <br />� <br />A r; <br />Ln <br />� 64 <br />63 <br />62 <br />1995 <br />I <br />VA <br />1997 1999 2001 200 200 2007 200 2011 2013 2015 <br />Sources: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, The State o�f the Nation's Housing 2'00'9; <br />ULI projections. <br />60 percent range—should be reassuring in this regard. Further, an unduly high home- <br />ownership rate can act as a drag on labor force mobility, especially today when many <br />workers are unable to sell their homes to move to areas with Jobs. <br />A school of thought exists that extols the virtues of homeownership for community <br />stability and for educational and health benefits for children. However, new studies are <br />raising questions about these results, suggesting instead that it is housing stability <br />that is the key factor in producing positive outcomes, not whether home is owned or <br />rented. In short, there is no reason to believe that a homeownership rate in the low 60 <br />percent range should be of national concern. <br />Unfortunately, the decline in the homeownership rate will have a disparate impact on <br />different racial and ethnic groups whose homeownership rates already differ widely. For <br />example, in 2OO4 the homeownership rate was 76 percent for the white population, 60 <br />percent for Asians, 49 percent for African Americans, and 48 percent for Latinos. <br />As the overall homeownership rate declines, this disparity is likely to grow because <br />disproportionately large numbers of African Americans and Lotinos were victims of <br />predatory lending practices: by some estimates, almost half of all loans in default are <br />