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A few thoughts for Roof over Your Head Day: as of the middle of last year roughly 63% of all American adults owned the homes they lived in. That number doesn’t sound too bad until you realize it’s the lowest it's been since 1967 and still dropping. It’s even worse when you compare that number with home ownership in other countries. China, India, Mexico, Lithuania and Romania all have home ownership rates between 80% and 97%. Why is home ownership so important? It has a stabilizing effect, both on the economies of individuals and on those of the communities and countries in which they live. In the past fifteen years, rent prices have grown twice as fast as household income; a trend that is unlikely to reverse in the near future. If you were to buy a home today and live in it until at least 2024, you’d likely save 38% over the cost of renting.