Home Ownership Is a Sound Investment
BY BILL FARLEY
COMING HOME
TO THE AMERICAN DREAM
OWNING A HOME IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT part of lives on with all of us: “Home is where the heart is.”
the American Dream that it almost seems to be lodged Nearly two millenniums later, the much-honored
in the Constitution. It’s not, but for most Americans it American poet Robert Frost offered his own poignant
might as well be. We are a nation of homeowners and take on the subject: “Home is the place where, when
no more so at any time in our history you have to go there, they have to
than today.
“Home is where
take you in.”
According to the most recent avail- Over and above the emotional
able figures, homeownership in the the heart is.” content of having a place to call one’s
United States has reached almost 70 own, homeownership is generally as
percent. A generation ago – in 1940 – that rate hovered sound an investment as one can make. Severe economic
around 44 percent. downturns excepted, its benefits and rewards simply
The dream of owning one’s home didn’t originate in can’t be beat.
America, although from Thomas Jefferson to Donald Studies have shown that homeownership has tremen-
Trump, experts on the subject have emphasized that dous positive effects on families, communities and the
real estate is a key building block of contentment and American economy. The more homes owned in a com-
wealth in our country. munity, the more stable the environment in which to
As far back as the first century, the Roman author raise children and support families.
and philosopher Pliny the Elder coined a phrase that While Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the legendary
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74_AmericanDreams.indd 74 5/31/07 4:11:53 PM
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