More importantly, the "statistic" also seems to contradict recent scholarly research that indicates that areas with high home ownership are the last to return to full employment.
"Oswald showed a correlation between homeownership and unemployment both within and across countries. These results have been confirmed by Nickell and Layard (OECD countries) and Green and Hendershott (U.S. states). The present paper tests the hypothesis with an individual household data base. We track through time individual households with people who enter unemployment. We find some evidence that earners in homeowning households who become unemployed find work less quickly than do earners of renter households."
"Oswald showed a correlation between homeownership and unemployment both within and across countries. These results have been confirmed by Nickell and Layard (OECD countries) and Green and Hendershott (U.S. states). The present paper tests the hypothesis with an individual household data base. We track through time individual households with people who enter unemployment. We find some evidence that earners in homeowning households who become unemployed find work less quickly than do earners of renter households."
Abstract: http://cura.osu.edu/research/roundtables/data/hendershott1.p...
NyTimes Article: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/16/a-chance-to-...