Richard Sweum: Current and Past Homeownership Rates...Opportunity!
There are thousands of different facts, stats and trends that we call allow ourselves to be absorbed by. In everey market, there is... guess it now... a ... MARKET! Someone is always buying and someone is always selling at any given price. I try not to get too swayed by any piece of minutia, but occassionally...something steps right up and kicks me in the tail.
Homeownership rates kicked me yesterd ay. Homeownership rates continue to slide...fewer houses being built, fewer new homebuyers entering the market, and more and more young (25-30) folks living back at home with mom and dad who are by the way, now in counseling becuase they don't know what to do with their kids who have failed to launch!
I look at the graph below and I see nothing but opportunity. There are buyers that have disqualified themselves from homeownership for no other reason than ignorance of the lending oppotunities that exist out there. We are talking about a much bigger number of non-buyers than a 4% decline in homeownership would suggest. Getting into the minds of "non-buyers" and recreating reality for them is difficult...but not impossible. That is were education, trust and sales all come in.
Looking at the chart below, the greatest opportunity to make a splash is with the 25-44 year olds. Catching them while they are "dual income" of some variety and "pre-kid" is the object. How to do we get at those tech-savvy, younger crowd and help them to understand that picking a first home that is a little larger than what they currently need is a wise play. BUT...we have to instill in them to think of themselves 10 years down the road and try to anticipate what is going to be important for them.
These two pieces of minutia give me a great deal of optimism about the next few years!
Richard Sweum: Current and Past Homeownership Rates...Opportunity!
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