Americans’ preference is to own their home instead of renting for the two primary reasons conveyed in the most current House Pulse Survey by the National Association of Realtors:
1) An environment that is safe, secure and steady.
2) It's a chance to increase wealth.
Steadiness and Security for the Family
Property managers showed in a rent.com survey, which was released in October, two explanations of why tenants do not typically experience housing stability:
1) Almost three quarters of property managers predict that rental rates will rise by about 8% over the next year.
2) More than half of the surveyed property managers share that more often than not, they will chose to bring a new tenant in at a higher rate- instead of trying to renew and negotiate with the current tenant- even though they already know them.
So, obviously, from these 2 results renting provides nothing close to steadiness and security.
The Increase of Wealth
CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, John Taylor, recently wrote that non-homeowners really lack the ability to reinvest their wealth:
"We traditionally have been huge supporters of homeownership. We see it as a way to provide stability for households but also as an asset-building strategy. If you continue to be a renter, locked out of the homeownership arena, increasingly those things are further and further out of reach. They are joined at the hip. They perpetuate each other."
At the End of the Day
The coupling of steadiness and stability, along with the increase of family wealth, are reasons that homeownership is such a great benefit to the family.