Source: National Affairs, March 2010

My friend, Vin Cannato, has published a nice piece on home ownership in the Spring 2010 issue of National Affairs.

Cannato writes,

Through a combination of heedless public policy and reckless lending, the benefits of home ownership had come to be exaggerated; the risks and drawbacks had been obscured from public view; and entry into the housing market had become far too easy. The result was a dangerous bubble that inevitably burst — with terrible implications for the broader economy.

But this American inclination to exaggerate the virtues of home ownership — and to make it far too easy to achieve — dates back much further than the past decade. Home ownership has long held a place in the American pantheon, right up there with baseball and apple pie. It has been heralded as the source of countless benefits to individuals and society — as a way to build personal wealth, provide a positive environment for child-rearing, encourage people to be active citizens, and improve neighborhood stability and safety. Yet while some of these benefits are very real, they are not the whole story.

You can read “the whole story” at Vincent Cannato, “A Home of One’s Own,” National Affairs, Spring 2010, pp. 69-86.