Quote:
Originally Posted by JonoBN41
Don't people all over the world own their own homes? What's so American about that?
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The idea that you could prosper mainly based on your hard work and own your land and home rather than being restricted by the social class you were born into were, at one time if not still, reasons that immigrants were attracted to America.
I suspect that home ownership is higher in the US than most other areas of the world. Canada is probably comparable, but I don't think it is as globally common as you think.
ETA: charts based on census data for rates of US home ownership:
http://www.danter.com/statistics/homeown.htm
International comparisions, but I can't speak for validity:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/brief...p-increase.xls
I suspect that historically the opportunity in the US seemed greater than elsewhere. What do you suppose was the rate of home ownership in Ireland in the 1800's?