The increasing homeownership rate was one of Bush's pet personal accomplishments, something he was quite proud of. Oh well.
And while the decrease obviously is a bad thing in that it's the direct outcome of the housing bubble bust and a crap economy, we shouldn't be sad if this rate remains lower even once things rebound. Homeownership isn't for everyone, and we'd do better moving to a world with more renters, along with strong tenant protection laws and very light rent control. Suggesting rent control is one of those heretical things, but I mean very light rent control to protect long term renters from sudden price spikes, not hard very binding "rent never goes up" caps.
