During his 1928 election campaign, President Herbert Hoover defined the 'American Dream' as "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." And while the chickens and cars (courtesy of a massive subprime auto loan bubble) don't seem to be much of a problem these days, for Americans in over half of the largest cities in the country, owning a home is.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, 52 of the 100 largest U.S. cities were majority-renter in 2015 with 21 of those cities having shifted from majority-owner markets since the 'great recession' resulted in a wave of foreclosures starting in 2009. These include such hot housing markets as Denver and San Diego and lukewarm locales, such as Detroit and Baltimore, better known for vacant homes than residential development.

And while a report from the "Urban Institute" implies that the sudden lack of home ownership in the U.S. is directly attributable to "demographic trends," we're fairly certain there may be other dynamics at play...

A 2015 report from the Urban Institute predicted that rentership would keep rising through 2030, thanks to demographic trends that include aging baby boomers who downsize into rentals. Those shifts are likely to present new challenges for cities unequipped to handle high rental populations. Detroit Future City, a nonprofit that highlighted Detroit’s shift in a report earlier this month, argues that the city needs an intentional strategy for dealing with the rising population of such households. That could include providing new protections for renters or creating resources to help landlords keep properties in good repair. On a grander scale, the Center for Budget Policy & Priorities, a Washington-based research institute, published a proposal this month calling for a new tax credit for low-wage workers, seniors, and people for disabilities. Most low-income families don’t rent by choice, said Nela Richardson, chief economist at Redfin. And plenty of higher-income households rent because they can’t afford to buy. “We don’t have enough affordable supply in either rental or for-sale markets,” said Richardson, adding that cities interested in promoting renter-friendly policies can rethink their zoning policies to encourage more construction.

...like maybe the fact that millions of people just suffered a foreclosure on their credit report and aren't even eligible for an FHA loan for at least 3 years. Or, perhaps that silly little rule whereby banks are now requiring a cash down payment when purchasing a home is tripping some folk up...fascists.

Or, maybe Americans finally just realized that owning a home was never "The American Dream" in the first place after, at least for many folks, it wiped out their entire life savings.