Instead, house-poor Americans are shifting to rentals with such speed that many areas can barely keep up with demand.

Overall, home ownership, the cornerstone of the American Dream, is down to 63 percent, a far cry from the 69 percent registered in 2004. The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University's annual "State of the Nation's Housing" report said current home ownership percentages rival that of 1993.

Those figures, however, are much worse for minorities, especially blacks. "The homeownership rate for minorities continues to lag: It peaked at 51.3 percent in 2004, and has now fallen to 47.2 percent. Of all minority groups, African Americans have the lowest rate of homeownership, just 43.8 percent," said the report.