Homeownership: Privilege or Right? Sheila Bair Responds

SHEILA BAIR ON HOUSING

The impact of foreclosures is dragging down the economy, Bair says. This is a housing-led recession and we need to acknowledge that everyone – from borrowers to lenders to the government – made mistakes along the way. We now need to look forward and determine what can get us out of this.

The American Dream has always come down to homeownership. But as we look back on what got us into this mess, we now must ask a tough question: is owning a home a privilege or a right? Bair says we must go back to how we once looked at our homes – not as an ATM machine but as a place to live and accumulate wealth over a lifetime. Somehow, we lost our way now we have to find it again.

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