How About Home Ownership - Is It Now Stronger?

How about home ownership in general - is it now in "stronger hands"? The real homeownership rate, defined as the percentage of households who own a home and are not 90 days or more delinquent on their mortgage, has fallen to 62.1%, the lowest level in nearly 50 years. (The Census Bureau's 65.5% homeownership rate overstates the real level of homeownership in the country since it counts all 3.8 million homeowners who are 90-plus days delinquent on their mortgage as homeowners.) Historically, the spread between the published and real homeownership rates has been slightly below 1%, even in a strong economic environment there is always some level of delinquency. But as we all know, the spread has widened from 1% to 3% due to the economic downturn, and understaffing at the banks who cannot deal with the huge inventory of delinquent mortgages and the complications of loan modification or foreclosure with so many parties involved. We also have lenders treading very cautiously, fearing fees, sanctions and even jail time (in Nevada) for not properly documenting the foreclosure process, and still some confusion from dealing with many Federal government attempts to intervene in the process like HARP and HAMP.