Home Ownership Rates Across the U.S. Lowest Since ’97 While Big Banks Have Cleaned Up

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The Wall Street Journal and other financial news media are reporting that the U.S. home ownership rate has slipped to it’s lowest in 15 years, and experts predict it will slip even further. Why? Mortgage lending is tighter than a violin string, with no signs of loosening, not even for an election. This echoed what every single Realtor I know says: we have record low, like HISTORICALLY  low mortgage-interest rates and falling home prices that have made homes more affordable than at any time in the past decade. But whose lending money? Not the big banks, that’s for sure. Could this have anything to do with the fact that five institutions in this nation control 50% of all the deposits? Talk about an oligopoly. Warren Stephens (a Little Rock, Arkansas wealth manager) argues that we need to dismantle the big banks, and I believe he is correct. A recent re-financing experience put me through the big bank wringer. Mr. Stephens solution, in case you cannot read the actual article, calls for a five-step program I whole heartedly endorse:

-Gradually reduce the bank deposit cap to 5% from 10%.

-Demand the breakup of banks that already exceed the 5% cap.

– Force banks to choose between commercial banking and investment.

– Retain the $250,000 limit on deposit insurance indefinitely. God help us if we ever had to invoke this protection.

– No more bailouts. You screw up, you pay the price like the rest of us.

 

 

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

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  1. Jay Narey on May 2, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    I knew when Phil Gramm introducted wanted to repeal Glass-Steagall back in 1999 that
    "all bets were off " and it was just a matter of time before a financial collapse ensued.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0k2PmF-o5Q

    The advent of derivatives and CDOs were also to blame.
    A recent Harvard undergraduate, Anna Katherine Barnett-Hart, did a magnificent job in explaining the CDO Meltdown in her Thesis.
    I have a copy of it if anyone (technically inclined) would like to read it.
    They can e-mail me at [email protected]
    for a copy.

    Let's face it FDR put Glass-Steagall into place in the Great Depression for a "reason."
    Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it !
    The whole thing could have been avoided in the first place.

  2. Jay Narey on May 2, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    I knew when Phil Gramm introducted wanted to repeal Glass-Steagall back in 1999 that
    "all bets were off " and it was just a matter of time before a financial collapse ensued.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0k2PmF-o5Q

    The advent of derivatives and CDOs were also to blame.
    A recent Harvard undergraduate, Anna Katherine Barnett-Hart, did a magnificent job in explaining the CDO Meltdown in her Thesis.
    I have a copy of it if anyone (technically inclined) would like to read it.
    They can e-mail me at [email protected]
    for a copy.

    Let's face it FDR put Glass-Steagall into place in the Great Depression for a "reason."
    Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it !
    The whole thing could have been avoided in the first place.

  3. […] As Candy mentioned, restrictive lending practices and tight-fisted banks despite historically low interest rates. So, more mortgage restrictions means fewer homeowners means more renters, right? […]

  4. […] As Candy mentioned, restrictive lending practices and tight-fisted banks despite historically low interest rates. So, more mortgage restrictions means fewer homeowners means more renters, right? […]

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