Homeownership and Income Integration

Two dominant themes in housing policy today revolve around homeownership and income integration. Homeownership has long been central to U.S. housing policy. Th e New Deal reforms of the 1930s, as discussed in Chapter 3 , revamped the housing fi nance system and made homeownership far more accessible and aff ordable than ever before. Towering over all of the government’s housing subsidies are the incentives provided by the federal tax code for homeownership. From the 1990s until 2007 when the foreclosure crisis began, all levels of government had renewed their eff orts to promote homeownership, especially among low-income and minority households, through a wide range of initiatives. Th e nation’s confi dence in the merits of homeownership may have been shaken by the near-collapse of the housing market in 2007 and the related surge in mortgage foreclosures and in the number of homeowners who are “under water”—with mortgage debt exceeding the values of their homes. However, as discussed below, opinion polls indicate that homeownership had regained much of its appeal by 2012.