A recent poll of likely voters conducted by the Woodrow Wilson Center found that 84 percent of the people said homeownership is just as or more important than it was five years ago. Reasons for this importance were family (19%) and security (17%) in additional to the financial arguments of owning a home being a better choice than renting (19%) and resale value (12%).

The poll also found that 90 percent of people said homeownership is part of the American Dream. (This is consistant with research the Illinois Association of REALTORS® did earlier this year with SGS that found Illinois residents were very much of the opinion that homeownership was part of the American Dream.)

Also good news, among the 28 percent of people who are not current homeowners, there is a high level of optimism about future homeownership with 75 percent of indicating they hope to purchase their own home sometime in the near future.

Find more key findings here: www.wilsoncenter.org/article/new-national-poll-americans-still-want-to-be-homeowners