Originally posted by Momus--
Time to change the record Lazs, home ownership in the UK is on a par with if not at a higher level than in the US and has actually boomed under or maybe in spite of our evil socialist government.
Howdy Momus,
Does your figure count 'shared ownership' homes as 'home ownership'? In the SO system, people buy a house in partnership with a company, so they own 50% of the home and hope to eventually purchase larger shares of it until they own it outright. The 50% share is mortgaged, so this is not the same as saying 'the bank owns it until I pay off my mortgage', they actually only have a half share of their home mortgaged to their name, if I understand the system correctly. There is also the 'Right to buy' system where the state heavilly subsidized the purchase, which was the major contributor to the spike in home ownership in England during the 1980s.
I suspect this is what lazs may have been referring to, but I'm not sure.
Home ownership in the US was at 69.2% in Q2 2004, according to the Census, and has continued to rise. This is without the same level of government subsidy that is enjoyed across the pond, which seems pretty significant.