By now the whole world has heard the story of the problems in the subprime mortgage market, which began to show up in the United States in 2007 and then spread around the world. Home prices and homeownership had been booming since the late1990s, and investing in a house had seemed a sure route to financial security and even wealth.
U.S. homeownership rates rose over the period 1997–2005 for all regions, all age groups, all racial groups, and all income groups. According to the U.S. Census, the homeownership rate increased from 65.7% to 68.6% (which represents at least a 4.4% increase in the number of owner-occupied homes) over that period. The increases in homeownership were largest in the West, for those under the age of 35, for those with below-median incomes, and for Hispanics and blacks.
