Overcoming the National Obsession of Owning a Home

Digested From "Why Home Ownership Is U.S. Obsession"
National Public Radio (03/26/09) by Kai Ryssdal

Edmund Phelps, director of Columbia University's Center on Capitalism and Society, was recently interviewed on National Public Radio about why so many Americans want to own their own homes. Phelps said the dream of homeownership has largely been fueled by the federal government, as both Democrats and Republicans have been overly eager to make owning a home "almost a national purpose." Phelps also called the nation's banks to task for focusing too much of their lending efforts "on residential mortgages and other soft targets." Phelps extolled the virtues of renting, explaining, "If you rent, that's it. You don't have to pay any interest to anybody, [and] you don't have to pay any maintenance costs to anybody." By contrast, homeowners have a myriad aggravations, from yard upkeep to roofing to plumbing repairs. Phelps remarked, "In strict money terms, there is no reason to think there is a systematic, long-run, sustainable, durable difference between the two." Phelps concluded by urging the Obama administration to push a new American dream of having a rewarding career and succeeding in that job. He states, "That's what we have to get back to, and get away from this mystique that the most important thing in your life that could ever happen to you is to be a homeowner."