Owning a home is a keystone of wealth - both financial affluence and emotional security.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Home ownership is the cornerstone of a strong community.
There is something permanent, and something extremely profound, in owning a home.
I think homes are a palpable form of investment, and I understand them.
Housing wealth - the net equity held by households, consisting of the value of their homes minus their mortgage debt - is the most important source of wealth for all but those at the very top.
For many of us, owning a home signaled a passage into adulthood that coincided with the start of a career and family.
These days the American dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare for millions of families. They wake every day to the reality of a horrible decline in the value of the home that has meant so much to them.
Many savers are also homeowners; indeed, a family's home may be its most important financial asset. Many savers are working, or would like to be.
The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it.
But wealth is a great means of refinement; and it is a security for gentleness, since it removes disturbing anxieties.
I don't look at what people do with their homes in terms of money, but the social and personal value of what they're trying to do and achieve.