Sometimes we (I) think that we are the most sophisticated, most developed, most put together country in the world.  And I think that we have many wonderful things going for us, but we still have a lot to learn from other countries too, I believe. Here is a tidbit of info that I found fascinating.  Did you know that there are 40 other countries that have higher home ownership rates that the U.S. does?  Wikipedia shows that 64.5% of the population in the U.S. owns their own homes.  By comparison, it’s 80% in Mexico, 86.6% in India,  90% in Cuba, and, topping out the list, 96.4% in Romania (according to Wikipedia).  Granted, many homes in the some of these countries may be build out of straw, but the whole idea of ratcheting up the collective financial well-being of our nation is food for thought.

CoreLogic reports this morning that their Home Price Index rose 0.8% last month and 7.2% from last year.  Property values continue to rise as our ownership rates have fallen over the last decade.  Fascinating.