Homeownership: Less Than Meets the Eye

Yet according to “The Homeownership Gap,” a paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, official figures are overstated because they do not exclude owners whose homes are worth less than the outstanding balance on their mortgages. Separate out those folks—they are, after all, more like renters than owners—and in some cities, including Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego, homeownership rates are 25 to 45 percentage points below the reported figures, say the study’s authors, Andrew Haughwout, Richard Peach, and Joseph Tracy.