About Homeownership in America Is there a housing(住房供给)crisis in America? Or are we simply in need of adjusting a system that already works? The answers to these questions axe vital, especially for those in the real estate (房地产) industry, including homebuyers and sellers, real estate practitioners, home builders, multifamily property developers and community planners. After all, if there are not enough homes, and once American households can afford, where will people live? How will local communities build their tax revenue (收入)? If people stop buying homes because of lack of supply, what happens to the U.S. economy ? The Importance of Homeownership The housing sector is one of the largest and most important sectors of the U.S. economy. In addition to providing shelter, housing provides millions of Americans with jobs and generates hundreds of billions of dollars of economic output each year. The value of residential (住宅的) structures totals over $12 trillion, while the housing sector directly and indirectly accounts for about 15 to 20 percent of our nation' s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (中民人均生产总值) every year. Moreover, most studies indicate that households spend about 30 to 40 percent of their disposable(可支配的)income on housing-related expenses. Those expenditures help to support other sectors of the economy. During the same period, the housing sector contributed more than half to the economic growth, with total singlefamily sales posting an all-time high of 6.2 million units. Housing is also an important source of wealth for many households. In 2001, existing home prices appreciated (增值)at a rate of 6.3 percent, the strongest increase is over a decade. Recent studies suggest that a home buying spurs additional expenditures such as new furniture, new appliances and moving costs, all of which contribute to economic activity. Rise in the value of home equity(资产净值)has a large impact on consumer spending decisions. The Federal Reserve estimates that for each one-dollar change in stock market equity, consumer spending increases by 3 to 7 cents. In another study, Case, Quigley, and Shiller (2001) argue that each extra dollar of housing wealth has five times the impact of an extra dollar of stock market wealth. Healthy home price appreciation (增值), in combination with robust sales, provides a strong tax base for local governments. Almost 70 percent of all tax revenues raised by local governments in the United States comes from property taxes. Homeowners contribute about 43 percent of property taxes, while commercial property taxes account for the remaining 57 percent. Because home prices historically have outpaced the rate of inflation(通货膨胀) by a couple of percentage points, the local tax base and tax revenue also keep pace with, if not exceed, the rate of inflation. One of the ways housing contributes to economic growth is via the se-called multiplier(增效器) effect. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) estimates that the multiplier effects from a single home sale amounts to about 0.28 percent of GDP. That translates into $ 5,100 for each home sale. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) places the estimate at $ 7,800 to $ 8,900 in the first year of a move. The multiplier effect is particularly important to local economies. Home sales and the construction of new homes provide jobs and tax revenues for local, state and federal governments. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that the construction of 1,000 single-family homes generates 2,448 full-time jobs in construction and construction related industries, $ 79.4 million in wages. Homeownership and Housing Opportunity Throughout most, if not all of the past decade, employment and wage gains were strong and interest rates moved near historic lows, creating favorable conditions for all households. The result is record-level homeownership rates. The