HOUSING MARKET ANALOGY: A Giant Bloodsucker Feeding On Itself After Sucking the life out of the American Dream..
The housing market is like a giant blood sucker feeding on itself --the market needs "blood" or money to survive--(to be able to sell those troubled houses), and there is so little of it and money is so hard to borrow that in order to survive, the sucker has turned inward on itself and the houses that can't sell now are added to the huge pile of already distressed homes.
There is now a never ending supply of vacant, empty shells (Bloodless) rotting into the ground! I have always heard that an empty house deteriorates much faster than one that is occupied....that is a fact and there is evidence of it everywhere now! (Like carcasses across the land!)
With getting a loan difficult at best and owners wanting to "get out" from under the enormous costs of running and managing a home, where do they go??? How do they get out from under the burden of home-ownership?
- They try to sell it
- They try to short sell
- They rent it out
- The walk away as a last resort
None of these are ideal--unless you don't mind being a landlord!
The "American Dream" of owning your own home was always a rare one; it only came after years of sacrifice and hard work. It was the prize for a few who had discipline and an awareness as to what owning a home really means: Expenses that can be unexpected and dramatic, a life long commitment to monthly payments, 
the risk of a bad housing market, and the value dropping precipitously in a prolonged down market.
RENTAL OPTION:
There is a shift going on that we, as real estate professionals need to be alert to it....Home-ownership has dropped precipitously in the last 2 years. Home ownership is at the lowest rate since the Great Depression! It is at a very low 65.1% versus almost 75% in 2007.
Figure 5. Annual Homeownership Rates for the United States and Regions: 1970-2010
In my opinion, we are just beginning to see the shift...The shift away from home-ownership to renting a home as an option. The rental option can be the answer to a huge problem and is one being considered more and more under the current housing pressure. Rentals are becoming the way of the real estate market.
What do we do now??? How do we advise a seller who needs to move for his work...What do we tell the buyer who is still trying to decide if they want to rent or to buy???
These questions have never been more difficult to answer for real estate professionals....We need to be prepared to advise the public to rent a home if they truly can not afford to buy. Unfortunately, home-ownership is quickly becoming a thing of the past for many middle income families. They need to find alternatives and fast.
THE AMERICAN DREAM OF HOME OWNERSHIP APPREARS TO BE FOR A PRECIOUS FEW NOW--I PERSONALLY, AM GOING TO KEEP UP ON THE MARKETS AS IT SHIFTS EVER MORE QUICKLY TO A RENTAL MARKET MENTALITY.
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