Homeownership Dips, American Dream Remains Elusive.

Americans are finding themselves trapped in a mire of deep financial problems as the economy worsens and the prospect of the financial and housing sectors remain bleak.

The US Census Bureau reports that homeownership rates continue to drop due to unemployment, high mortgages and declining home prices. The same report found that the homeownership rate for the third quarter dipped to 66.9 percent, which is the lowest rate since the second quarter of 1999. Homeownership rate peaked at 69.1 percent in the first quarter of 2005 at the height of the housing boom, but this figure had since dwindled, with almost 3 million less Americans now who own their homes.

The vacancy rate, which although remained unchanged from the second quarter’s 2.5 percent, also increased from the mid-decade’s sub-2% levels. This means that a substantial number of homes still remain vacant or unoccupied.

Meanwhile, the vacancy rate for rental properties also dropped to 10.3 percent in the third quarter from 10.6 percent in the preceding quarter. However, this rate is still slightly higher than the 9.9 percent rate it showed two years ago.

The IHS Global Insight notes that, while there are fewer new homes being built, the inventory of available houses remains big as less and less people are looking for properties to either rent or buy. The trend among households is to double their occupancy within a single home in order to cope with their financial woes.

But regions with the cheapest home prices still continue to exhibit high homeownership rates. The Midwest region has 71.1 percent homeownership rate, which, although down from 73 percent in the late 2006, is still the highest rate among all other regions.

Likewise, both the South and Northeast regions, while down from their previous percentage levels, are still showing high rates with 66.9 and 63.9 percent, respectively. The Western region also has a high rate of 61.3 percent, but down from its 65.3 percent rate in the third quarter of 2006.

The report also showed that homeownership rate is higher among adults with the 65 up age group than for those under 35. The rate of homeownership for those within the 35-44 age brackets also dips by 7 percent from its peak. This shows that the market and financial crisis could have affected more the younger population than the senior citizens who, more or less, have already paid their mortgage and freed their homes from any debt.