America's Homeowner Alliance - The Road Home: June is National Homeownership Month!

June is National Homeownership Month!

In 2002, President George W. Bush proclaimed June to be National Homeownership Month, during which he encouraged all Americans to achieve the American Dream by learning more about financial management and exploring homeownership opportunities in their communities.

Without a doubt, homeownership is a cornerstone of our economy and can significantly contribute to the quality of life to individuals and to the vibrancy of their communities. Here are just a few reasons to celebrate homeownership, and to encourage healthy homeownership rates in our neighborhoods, towns and cities.

• Homeownership builds wealth over time and in the long run, buying is more cost effective than renting. A 2013 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances found that over the past decade, the average wealth of an American homeowner family was between 31 to 46 times that of a renting family, regardless of demographic characteristics.
• Owning a home has positive tax implications for many families, given that your mortgage interest and property tax payments may be deductible from your federal taxes and many state taxes.
• According to a 2013 report by the Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard University, children of homeowners (as compared to children of renters of the same age, income, race, etc.) are 25% more likely to graduate from high school, are 116% more likely to graduate from college, have 9% higher math scores, and have 7% higher reading scores.
• The Joint Center of Housing Studies also found that homeowners (as compared to renters) are 28% more likely to repair or improve their homes, are 10% more likely to report that they have worked to solve local problems, live four times longer in a community, and are 15% more likely to vote.
• Neighborhoods with higher rates of homeownership have been found to feature proportionately lower rates of property crime and violent crime. According to a 2009 study by the University of Nebraska, the bottom 25 states in homeownership have violent crime rates that are more than 17% higher than the top 25 states in homeownership.
• According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 500 jobs are created for every 1,000 homes sold and each new U.S. home sale contributes an average of $60,000 in economic activity to our national GDP. The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that new homebuyers spend an average of $9,4000 on goods and services in the first six months of homeownership alone.

America needs homeownership to build communities, provide generational wealth, encourage educational advancement, sustain job growth, and deliver on the dream of hope and prosperity. Your AHA is proud to be the first-ever national alliance representing the exclusive interests of homeowners and aspiring homeowners, and will continue to work the policymakers to promote sustainable homeownership in all segments of America.

• The sign up for the exclusive benefits of AHA through The Mortgage Collaborative: Click Here!     Membership Code specifically for TMC Members & Partner Companies: tmc2017
  
• For additional information on America's Homeowner Alliance, contact Rod Luckhart.