Answer: You have to go back to 1965 to find home ownership rates equal to today’s rate of 63%.

Questions for your students:

• Do you want to own a home some day? Why or why not?
• What’s an appropriate headline for this chart?
• How many years did it take the housing bubble to inflate (trough to peak)? How many years has it been since the market peaked? Where do you think it will bottom out?
• What explains the drop since 2006?
• What tends to happen with homeownership rates during recessions (thin gray bars on the chart)?
• Why do you think this homeownership rate figure can be an indicator of consumer confidence?

Want this resource and questions in slide format to use in class? Click here!

Additional Resources:

• NGPF Activity: Calculate Your Mortgage
• Video: It’s Not A Housing Bubble, It’s Just Expensive (Bloomberg)
  • Why is the market so hot in some markets and yet it seems that nationally a smaller percentage of households are homeowners?

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.