Courtesy Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed comes this chart that shows over time how renters’ reasons for becoming home owners has changed. While this is a UK sample, given the similarities in the two cultures, and the runup in property values on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s not hard to imagine that a US survey would yield broadly similar results.
Kedrosky highlighted the increased emphasis on housing as an investment. One would expect that motivation to be at least as strong in the US. By contrast, in 1977, far and away the biggest reason to buy a house was having gotten married. Homeownership was seen as part of growing up and putting down roots.
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Very relevant
Looks to me like the last one down had the greatest % increase – how many tears will flow from that?
fatbear
The greatest PERCENTAGE POINT increase was in the second one – “now or never”. That is, people were panicked into buying now. Look when it increased – 1987 during the 80s house price boom, not at all till 1997 when prices hadn’t risen much, and then another large increase in the current price boom.
This is an important component of the increase in demand.