Is Renting the New Owning?

Amidst all of the debate surrounding the stimulus package last week there was one topic that seemed untouchable: home ownership as the great American Dream. The "American dream of home ownership" was invoked by a myriad of politicians to make a myriad of arguments for programs ranging from tax incentives to law enforcement. Yet last week on KCRW's To the Point and in a recent Richard Florida piece for the Atlantic (discussed here at GOOD) the benefits of home ownership are reconsidered. In New York academics, planners and other thought leaders met at Transforming America's Housing Policy to "fundamentally rethink" our housing policy and to present  recommendations for President Obama and Congress. I'm curious to see the recommendations.

As a former home owner and current renter I have well formed opinions on the pros and cons of both. My love affair with home ownership wore off almost as soon as I closed on my house and definitely by the first time my roof leaked (and after every subsequent storm). When I sold my little house I felt like a giant cinder block had been lifted off my chest. It was-like the guest on To the Point- as if I didn't own my home, my home owned me.
In his article for the Atlantic Richard Florida questions the assumption that home owners are better off,
"Home ownership occupies a central place in the American Dream primarily because decades of policy have put it there. A recent study by Grace Wong, an economist at the Wharton School of Business, shows that, controlling for income and demographics, homeowners are no happier than renters, nor do they report lower levels of stress or higher levels of self-esteem".
So owning a home doesn't make us happier? Or wealthier? So what are the benefits exactly and for whom?
One argument, made by social scientists like Robert Putnam, is that home owners are more engaged citizens (and by addition better neighbors). The theory, then, is that better neighbors make better communities. And in theory that sounds right: if I'm financially invested in a community I am more invested in its success. While it's true that better neighbors make better neighborhoods I know from living in Ft. Greene Brooklyn-where almost everyone I knew was a renter-that renters can be as good or better neighbors than owners. Community gardens flourished through the care of people who had been living (and renting) in that neighborhood for decades. The Farmers's Market grew as young renters moved in. It wasn't home ownership per se that was driving the vibrancy of the community, it was the influx of a socially and poltically active community--renters or not.
And now with a foreclosure moratorium in effect until at least March 6th the back and forth continues. I'm not sure what the best solution is but Florida has a pretty intersting proposal. Instead of resisting foreclosures he suggests, "the government should seek to facilitate them in ways that can minimize pain and disruption. Banks that take back homes, for instance, could be required to offer to rent each home to the previous homeowner, at market rates--which are typically lower than mortgate payments-for some number of years. (At the end of the period, the former homeowner could be given the option to repurchase the home at the prevailing market price.)".
I think he's right to question the convential wisdom that would keep people, who are already struggling financially, in houses and mortgages based on inflated prices (in some cities prices have declined by as much as 30% this year alone). And given the new (old) lessons learned about the inherent risks in home ownership I wonder how many of the former owners would choose to buy again.
What do you think? Is renting the new owning?