by Susan Gittelman, executive director of B’nai B’rith Housing

Housing ownership is coming back. It’s been awhile.

At one point, the homeownership rate in the United States reached almost 70 percent, high even for America. Program after federal program joined forces with private lenders and Wall Street to encourage everyone in the country to own.

But then trouble began. The housing bubble, borrowers overextending themselves, the sloppy securitization of loans, “robosigning” schemes and other sketchy practices designed to defraud the most vulnerable in our society. Thankfully, most of it is behind us, after the crisis that hit in 2008. All that went up in a puff of smoke, and with a lot of personal pain and distress, as values collapsed, homes went unsold and abandoned and foreclosures mounted…more.