There s a spatial relationship between mortgage approval rates and household transportation spending. This finding is consistent with the overall concern about the best use for the limited availability of credit. There is a big difference between home ownership and car ownership . Homes have appreciated in value over the past 10 years at an average 3.2 percent per year. 2 Vehicles, by contrast, depreciate at an average of 8 percent per year.
Homes last an average of eighty years, while cars are increasingly lasting only twelve years.
Increased vehicle ownership eats into limited resources . The aggregate burden is unacceptably high . Encouraging car ownership by the working poor could increase car ownership by one car, for households at or below the poverty level. Such proposals could add 17 million vehicles to the poverty level households in the first and second quintile. There is a better choice encouraging smarter locations through homeownership .