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Another factor, governing homeownership decisions is the desire to have no Obligations for upkeep, maintenance, and operations, or the possession of furniture. Consequently, .some of the decisions to rent among those who can fully afford to own homes can be accounted for by a decision to spend money on the convenience.involved in renting. Our society tends to value homeownership and govern- mental policy has generally been supportive of homeownership. Despite this, in 1970, only 56.6% of Santa Aha households · owned their own.homes. To many persons this would be considered a significant, problem. How significant the problem is depends upom two factors, however. .One'is how importantis home- ownership in terms of any benefit to society or individual households which result from homeownership? Secondly, against what standards should the 56.6% figure be measured: Orange County's 6A.6% or some lesser figure? The value which our-society has placed ~pon home- ownership reflects the values which have traditionally been · placed on self-reliance and independence and controlling one's own destiny. The desire to promote homeownership frequently stems also from the view that homeownership results in a feeling of pride and positive self-image and a feeling of having a stake in the community, These attitudes which homeownership are ~aid to engender.are considered to result in a desire to conserve housing in'order to protect one's investment. These views of the positive benefits o~ home- ownership to society have substantial merit. They do not apply to everyone, however. Where the home is too costly to'maintain, a budget squeeze Can and frequently does result in lack of maintenance even among those who would be pre- disposed to maintain the home if they could afford to. Many elderly homeowners, since they have expectations of living indefinitely on low fixed incomes,' are forced to pursue policies of minimal, if any, maintenance. Now let's turn to the question of "what is a desirable homeownership rate in Santa Ann?" While there is no ob- jective answer to this question, the answer clearly is not 100%. Mobility and life style factovs as well as Rersonal preferences limit the desirable level of homeownership to a figure far below'lO0% in the absence of institutions permitting fast, easy, and inexpensive conversion of heusing assets. It is unrealistic, within'the institutional framework' of the current housing market, to consider an optimum level of homeownership to be higher than the homeownership rates among those who can afford to exercise their pre- ference between ownership and renting., If this is taken as the $15,000 to $25,000 income group in the.1970 Census of Population~ this would mean an optimum homeownership rate of almost 80%, with homeownership rates of about 85% for 0000