most americans have most of their wealth tied up in a home that they own
That may be true for older but a whole lot of millennials and younger rent or have some other non-ownership living arrangement, which makes it especially fucked when they still punch down on the unhoused.
I had a former roommate who was fucked over for hours and remained at the bottom of a big box retail totem pole for years until he was unceremoniously laid off and he always blamed his "lazy" coworkers for that.
most americans have most of their wealth tied up in a home that they own
I always hear this, and I know the stats say it’s like 60%, but to be quite honest I don’t fucking believe that. Who are these 60% of people that own their homes? I don’t know them. Some of my friends parents (not even all) own a home, and one of my friends. If I estimated based on people I know I would say around 1/5th of Americans own their home.
I mean it just depends on the area you're in and your background right? If you live somewhere with a higher COL the rate is lower (42-55% in DC, CA and NY) locally. Also it's calculated as (homes occupied by owner)/(all occupied homes).
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate.
If you added a third house owned by Family Fred and Family Francine, a married couple, who also live with the following adults who don't own the home: Francine's ailing mother, adult son Chuck, adult daughter Samantha and Chuck's boyfriend Tom who they let move in because he was going to be homeless otherwise.
66% home ownership rate in this neighborhood now. Mind you Fred and Francine can own 3% equity in the house and owe the bank 97% of the houses value: they still count as a home owning household.
EDIT: to clarify, most of my point here is that most people would say 1/11 of the people in this neighborhood, 3/11 of we're being generous, own a home. The rate is calculated in a way that maybe is misleading.
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate
Ah yes okay, so a 60% home ownership rate is a lie. The right way to calculate this situation would be a 20% home ownership rate, not 50%, as 1 in 5 people owns the home they live in.
Being deliberately miscalculated to tell a lie does explain why that number feels like bullshit.
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That may be true for older but a whole lot of millennials and younger rent or have some other non-ownership living arrangement, which makes it especially fucked when they still punch down on the unhoused.
My roommate used to BE unhoused and punches down at the unhoused -_-
I had a former roommate who was fucked over for hours and remained at the bottom of a big box retail totem pole for years until he was unceremoniously laid off and he always blamed his "lazy" coworkers for that.
I always hear this, and I know the stats say it’s like 60%, but to be quite honest I don’t fucking believe that. Who are these 60% of people that own their homes? I don’t know them. Some of my friends parents (not even all) own a home, and one of my friends. If I estimated based on people I know I would say around 1/5th of Americans own their home.
I mean it just depends on the area you're in and your background right? If you live somewhere with a higher COL the rate is lower (42-55% in DC, CA and NY) locally. Also it's calculated as (homes occupied by owner)/(all occupied homes).
So like if you have 2 houses in a neighborhood, both owned by Bourgeois Bobby and he lives in one and rents the neighboring one to a group of 4 roommates, that's a 50% home ownership rate.
If you added a third house owned by Family Fred and Family Francine, a married couple, who also live with the following adults who don't own the home: Francine's ailing mother, adult son Chuck, adult daughter Samantha and Chuck's boyfriend Tom who they let move in because he was going to be homeless otherwise.
66% home ownership rate in this neighborhood now. Mind you Fred and Francine can own 3% equity in the house and owe the bank 97% of the houses value: they still count as a home owning household.
EDIT: to clarify, most of my point here is that most people would say 1/11 of the people in this neighborhood, 3/11 of we're being generous, own a home. The rate is calculated in a way that maybe is misleading.
Ah yes okay, so a 60% home ownership rate is a lie. The right way to calculate this situation would be a 20% home ownership rate, not 50%, as 1 in 5 people owns the home they live in.
Being deliberately miscalculated to tell a lie does explain why that number feels like bullshit.