Homeowners, I implore you, keep those stories of leaky pipes and flooded basements to yourself.

Speak not of wind damage and fears that lightning will strike and send that 60 feet tall oak tree into your roof with a kaabam.

We in the renter class are listening.

And many of us are on the bubble about this buying a house thing as it is.

All that caulking and mowing seems like a lot of work and that comes from someone who actually likes to caulk and mow.

Spending every weekend searching for fixtures at the Wilmington Pike Home Depot or paying a plumber to remove clogs would get real old, real quick.

The housing market crash and foreclosure crisis haven’t exactly helped convince us that home ownership still equates to the American Dream.

With all that is going on in the state, it is no wonder that home ownership is on the decline around the nation and here.

In Ohio, the number of people living in homes they own was 69.1 percent in 2000. In 2010, it was 67.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the Dayton region, it was 69.8 percent, but dropped to 68.6 percent.

As the Dayton Daily News reported earlier this year, the rates of home ownership declined in all but six of the larger cities and villages in our eight-county region.

Indications are that you can own a home cheap — yeah, cheap — in these parts.

The Dayton area recently ranked seventh on CNN Money’s list of 10 dirt-cheap housing markets.

The website lists the top major housing markets where the typical home costs less than $82,000.

The median home price in the Dayton market is $78,000, the magazine said.

Yeah, but why buy the cow if you can get the milk at a reasonable price and without having to replace the window or directly pay sidewalk replacement fees?

The median owner cost for a Montgomery County resident with a mortgage was estimated to be $1,205 in 2009, according to the Census Bureau.

The cost was $441 for those without a mortgage. The estimated median rent was $673 in the county.

That all said, economists, politicians, grandparents and the community-minded have long touted the societal benefits of home ownership.

If you can afford it, houses are still a good investment, they say.

Home owners are invested in the community and add stability to neighborhood. Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies concluded a decade ago that children of homeowners have better home environments, higher cognitive test scores, and fewer behavior problems than do children of renters.

Such great things about home ownership, but often all you hear about is default, crabgrass and red ants.

The American Dream needs an overhaul. Perhaps someone should throw a parade about why owning a piece of the pie is worth it.

What do you think? Is it still worth it to buy a house? Is home ownership still the American Dream? Contact staff writer Amelia Robinson at arobinson@DaytonDaily News.com.