Secret #1 - Despite Our Extremely High Mortgage Debt, the U.S. has a Below Average Home Ownership Rate

Current U.S. housing policies maximize mortgage debt, not home ownership.

Source: OECD (2022), Housing Taxation in OECD Countries, OECD Tax Policy Studies, No. 29, OECD Publishing, Paris. Yellow highlights by John Wake. The U.S. estimates are for 2019. The other estimates are for 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019 depending on the country.

A 2022 OECD study of 28 countries found the U.S. had the 2nd highest percentage of households that owned their homes but still had mortgages. All our mortgage debt hasn’t increased our home ownership much.

Looking at all home owners, whether they have mortgages or not, the overall household home ownership rate was higher in 19 of the 28 countries shown above than in the U.S.

It certainly seems U.S. housing policy is designed to maximize mortgage ownership, not home ownership.

Two of the reasons for the low free-and-clear home ownership rate in the U.S. are our long, 30-year mortgages and our mortgage tax breaks. 

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