Daughter Of Mortgage Bankers Association CEO Has Lost Faith In American Homeownership Dream

“The world has changed,” explains the 27-year old daughter of David Stevens – CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Despite her father’s constant 30-year pitch of the merits of homeownership – and knowing full well that rates are low, rents are high, and owning a home ‘builds wealth’ – Sara Stevens is not buying. After watching “cousins and other family members go through pretty tough situations in 2008 and 2009,” her skepticism is broad-based as Bloomberg reports, t’s more than the weight of student loans, an iffy job market and tight credit — even those who can buy are hesitant. As Bloomberg reportsso eloquently concludes, when even the cheerleader-in-chief for housing can’t get a rah-rah out of his daughter, you know this time is different.

Bloomberg reports

Six years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a financial meltdown, some young adults are more risk averse and view the potential upsides of status and wealth more skeptically than before the crisis, altering the homeownership calculation. It’s more than the weight of student loans, an iffy job market and tight credit — even those who can buy are hesitant.

The doubt is so pervasive that it’s eroded entry-level sales and hampered the recovery. In May, the share of first-time buyers fell for the third month, to 27 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors. Historically, it’s been closer to 40 percent of all buyers.

“We have a younger generation that has sat on the front lines of this housing recession,” said Stevens, 57. “They’re clearly being more thoughtful about it and they’re clearly deferring that decision.”

As the charts above show, Sara Stevens and other millennials — the generation born beginning in the early 1980s — started coming of age just as housing collapsed.

Sara was just out of college in 2009 when President Barack Obama put her dad in charge of the Federal Housing Administration. Part of his job was to lobby Congress not to dismantle the financial architecture that had made it possible for generations of Americans — including himself — to buy homes. He also was juggling pleas from family and friends who couldn’t pay their adjustable-rate mortgages or sell their devalued houses.

“I watched cousins and other family members go through pretty tough situations in 2008 and 2009,” Sara said.

…

Most still aspire to own, though just 52 percent consider homeownership an “excellent long-term investment,” according to an April survey from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. And almost three-fourths of adults 18 to 34 years old say the U.S. still is in the throes of a housing crisis, a bigger share than any other age group.