Riccardo and Simone Bertagna bought a 25% stake in a property valued at 440,000 through a housing association, feeling proud and accomplished. However, they later faced significant issues, including rising service charges and maintenance problems, which left them feeling trapped in an unsellable home.
Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.
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"When deciding whether to sell quickly or rent out the home, many homeowners underestimate the logistics involved with moving only part of their belongings or staging while relocating. Storage may seem like a simple add-on, but it actually introduces multiple steps, additional labor, and can significantly increase costs, sometimes even doubling them."
Financially, the American dream should not be homeownership, but should be financial independence, Robert Johnson, CEO of Economic Index Associates and a professor at Creighton University, said in the report. People fall prey to the stories of individuals realizing substantial gains by buying a home and selling it at a much higher price years down the road. He noted that nearly 29% of household wealth was tied to home equity in 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Is it time to think about rent-to-own homes? After all, 2026 is shaping up to be a chaotic year, with an uncertain economy, political pandemonium roiling every market, and a falling dollar. And in real estate, everyone seems to be hurting. For the first time in over a decade, it's seemingly a buyer's market, with housing stock finally exceeding those looking to make a purchase.
Collins, the best-selling author of Pathfinders and The Simple Path to Wealth, said the reasoning is simple: Buying a home "dramtically inflate[s]" your cost of living. While your mortgage payment and rent payment may be similar on paper, owning a home ends up costing more in the long run and comes with unexpected expenses-often referred to as the "hidden costs" of homeownership, like insurance, repairs, and updates.
They have strong demand for the American dream of homeownership, but they're really just feeling left behind right now, Jessica Lautz, the deputy chief economist at NAR, said of first-time buyers. Homeownership is a way that many Americans build wealth and unfortunately they're just being pushed to the sidelines for a longer period of time and losing out on those wealth gains. They're also thinking about unique ways to enter into homeownership.
Realtor Todd Luong of REMAX DFW Associates in Frisco said his recent experience reflects meaningful improvement for buyers, even if affordability remains strained. Here in the Dallas real estate market that I serve, affordability remains a challenge, he says. However, there is a significant amount of data showing that buyer conditions have improved over the past year and that buyers are gaining affordability ground. This should eventually increase housing demand to some degree as we head into the busy spring buying season.
