renters.
The results of this real estate spending spree(无节制的狂热行为) According to the Federal Reserve(美国联邦储备局), American real estate lost more than $6 trillion in value, or almost 30 percent, between 2006 and 2010. One in five American homeowners is underwater(价值缩水的,资不抵债的), owing more on a mortgage than what the home is worth.
In June, a New York Times(《纽 约时报》)-CBS News(美国哥伦比亚 广播公司新闻频道) poll found that almost 90 percent of Americans think that homeownership is an important part of the American dream.
Subsides for homeownership, including the mortgage(抵押借款,按 揭) interest deduction, reached $230 billion in 2009, according to
the Congressional Budget Office(国会预算局). Meanwhile, only $60 billion in tax breaks(减税优惠) and spending programs aided
Insurance companies, securities and investment firms, real estate interests, and commercial banks gave more than $100 million to federal candidates and parties in 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics(政治反应中 心).
Homeownership is more important to special interests than it is to most Americans, who, according to our research, care more about “a good job,”“ the pursuit of happiness” and “freedom.”
But only 7 percent of Americans we surveyed ranked homeownership as their first or second definition of the American dream.
Federal support of homeownership greatly overvalues its meaning in American life. Through tax breaks and guarantees, the government boosted homeownership to its peak in 2004, when 69 percent of American households owned homes.
Why isn’t homeownership ranked first or second by most people in the American dream?
Those who profit most from homeownership are far anunt; very much) the largest source of political campaign contributions.