Great Graphic: International Home Ownership

Here is a Great Graphic from Bank of America  on the extent of home ownership in a number of countries.  The chart is from last year, so it likely picks up 2010 data. 

I know I was surprised, and you might be also, to learn that Singapore and China had wider home ownership than the US.  That Ireland and UK did may not be so surprising as home ownership in Anglo-American economies tends to be high.

As is often the case, the one must question the data and charts do not speak for themselves.  That some 80% of Chinese own homes seems like a stretch.  The US figure is also quite high and subsequent data has shown it to be back to the 65.4% in Q1 2012, the lowest since 1997. 

At its peak, US home ownership was just shy of 70% in 2004, according to the census bureau.  Economists often refer to the cyclical expansion being kept in check by structural forces.  The structural forces they refer to is de-leveraging.  There is another structural force at work: demographics.  Employment and housing seem to be impacted by this structural force.