Home Ownership - the positives and the negatives

Read - Home Not-So-Sweet Home, Krugman, Paul. New York Times. June 23, 2008.

As Program Moves Poor to Suburbs, Tensions Follow, Solomon Moore. New York Times. July 9, 2008.

This article raises a few of the issues regarding owning a home versus renting.

Examine this issue.

Make a table in a word processing document. Use it to compare and contrast different forms of housing.

What are the positives for home ownership?

What are the positives in renting?

What are the negatives in home ownership?

What are the negatives in renting?

Which form of housing is more flexible in hard times like a divorce or a job loss?

Which form of housing is better if there is a natural disaster like: flooding, a tornado or a hurricane?

What happens to home property values when a major employer in a town leaves or goes out of business?

Local Thinking:

Make a chart showing the percentage of owners and renters in your state.

Make a circle chart showing the percentages or owners and renters in your county or community.

Research the median or mean value of a home in your community.

Median prices fall in most places. Lewis, Holden. Bankrate.com - Based on this information, what do you expect to be the median home value in your community this year?

 

What does it cost to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in your area?

Identify 10 jobs that are tied to the housing market.

Select one.

What training is needed to perform the job?

 

How much is the annual salary for that job?

 

Should someone doing this job buy a house or rent an apartment in your community?

 

Digging Deeper:

American Murder Mystery - A criminologist and a housing expert, each engaged in separate, unrelated research, have discovered an overlap between the destruction of inner city housing projects and an increase in crime in historically quiet neighborhoods. CSPAN Washington Journal 6/26/2008 - Hanna Rosin discusses her article about the Memphis research and the impact the findings could have on the national effort to diffuse inner-city poverty. Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, July/August 2008. Printable document of article | Consequences from the Redistribution of Urban Poverty During the 1990's, A Cautionary Tale
by George C. Galster

American Housing Survey 2005 - This book presents data on apartments; single-family homes; manufactured/mobile homes;
vacant housing units; age, sex, and race of householders; income; housing and neighborhood quality; housing costs;
equipment and fuels; and size of the housing units. The book also presents data on mortgages, rent control, rent
subsidies, previous unit of recent movers, and reasons for moving.

Extensions:

Internet Hunts / Nature / Computers / Pennsylvania Projects / Puzzles & Projects / Constitution & Civics Studies / Site map / Home

posted 6/2008, In the spirit of Thomas Paine - released to public domain by Cynthia J. O'Hora

Aligned with the following Pa Academic Standards - Reading, Writing Speaking, History, Civics and Government, Mathematics, Civics, Science and Technology, Career Education and Work. Aligned with the National Standards for Civics and Government

Save a tree - use a Digital Answer Format - Highlight the text. Edit .. Copy it. Paste it in a word processing document. Save the document in your folder. Answer on the wp document in an easily read, contrasting color or font. (Not yellow ) nor fancy fonts like Symbols, Techno, fancy fonts) Save frequently as you work. Enter your name and the date in a document header. Submit your work via an electronic drop box or email attachment. Make your own printer paper answer sheet