Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Rent Is No Longer A "Four Letter Word"

A recent San Francisco Chronicle "On The Block" blog post by "Jenny P" noted that the Obama Administration is backing off on the nation's historic posture of promoting home ownership.

"In previous eras, we haven't seen people question whether homeownership was the right decision. It was just assumed that's where you wanted to go," said Raphael Bostic, a senior official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "You're not going to hear us say that anymore."

The post also noted that NPR recently talked about the apparent shift in policy:

"Nicolas Retsinas, the director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, says "rent" is no longer a "four-letter word." "In the past, you rented if you didn't make enough money," he says. "You rented if you weren't ambitious. You rented if you weren't smart enough. But as it turns out, as we look at recent years, renting turned out to be a pretty smart thing to do."

At the American Tenants Association we have always believed that rent never was a "four letter" word.  The millions of homeowners underwater on their mortgages or with homes at half their purchase price would probably tend to agree.

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