b'IS OWNING A HOME STILL ESSENTIAL TO THE AMERICAN DREAM? In Its a Wonderful Life: Live in Chicago!, the Bailey Building & Loan makes the dream of homeownership a reality for many residents of Bedford Falls, but is homeownership still essential to the American Dream today? The below Chicago Tribune article by Nicholas Padiakedited here for lengthaddresses that very question. Ah, the American Dream: You work hard, get a good job, start a family, buy a house and then, when you\'re done with that house, you buy a bigger one. You accumulate wealth in your home and then pass that wealth on to your children, who will be better off than you. That\'s the American Dream, right? Right? "I guess if your definition of the American Dream hasn\'t changed since, like, the \'50s," said freelance camera operator Dan Niederkorn, 24, of the Chicago suburb of Montgomery. Niederkorn, a member of the millennial generation, currently lives with his parents but said he plans to be a renter for life and never buy a home. He craves the ability to pack up and go, he said, and doesnt want to be saddled with a home loan, property taxes or homeowners associations fees. And though this may put him in the minorityan Apartment List survey of about 24,000 renters nationwide released in May found that 80% of millennial renters want to buy adidn\'t act entirely on its own, according to Eugene White, house or condo sometime in the futureit does raise someprofessor of economics at Rutgers University and co-editor of interesting questions about the American Dream and thethe book Housing and Mortgage Markets in Historical place of homeownership within it.Perspective. "As we know, in taxes or anything else, there\'s a History of homeownershipgreat deal of lobbying which goes on in Congress," White To really examine what we know of as the American Dream,said. "And the housing industry has been very successful in it helps to start by looking at the history of homeownershipgetting breaks . which induce people to buy houses." in the United States.The breaks White referred to are some of the biggest "The U.S. wasn\'t always a nation of homeowners," said Brianincentives toward homeownership today, according to Greg McCabe, assistant sociology professor at GeorgetownNagel, managing broker of Ask Nagel Realty in Chicago\'s West University and author of the book No Place Like Home:Town community area. Homeownership, said Nagel, Wealth, Community, and the Politics of Homeownership."represents probably the most risk-free investment opportunity to build wealth due to the tax advantages," such "The homeownership rate really starts to climb after theas the mortgage interest and property tax deductions. "It\'s Second World War," McCabe said. "So it\'s in the 1950s andvery powerful," he said. the 1960s that we go from being a country of 45% (homeownership) to a country of well over 60%."Effects of crisis deeply felt But as was made painfully clear during the housing crisis of There are many reasons for this shift, McCabe said, citing the2007-08, real estate investments aren\'t always a sure thing. rise of the suburbs, the postwar baby boom, low interestAnd this knowledge may loom large for an entire generation rates offered to soldiers returning from the war and theof Americans. evolution of mortgages into the relatively low-down-payment, extended-loan-period products we commonly see"A lot of millennials\' conceptions about homeownership are today. "This is really the creation of the federal government,"shaped by the experiences they went through during their McCabe said. "We thought what it meant to be a good citizenformative years," said Phoenix-based attorney James was very caught up in what it meant to own property in theGoodnow, shareholder and director at Fennemore Craig P.C. United States."and co-author of the book Motivating Millennials. Of course, as with most things political, the government"When the housing bubble burst in 2008, millennials saw 16AMERICAN BLUES THEATER'