Scott Burns from The Dallas Morning News writes,
Homeownership is the key to building wealth: This is true all over the planet, not just in Boston and San Francisco.
Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto found that owning a home was the most important step toward maintaining a good standard of living and stability.
In countries where homeownership is less common than in the United States, the distribution of wealth tends to be more highly concentrated.
If you examine the consumer balance sheet in the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds figures, you’ll find that individual homes always play a large role in consumer net worth.
Similarly, if you examine the sources of wealth for most households in the survey of consumer finance, you’ll find that home equity is the largest contributor to net worth for all but the wealthiest households.