James Truslow Adams was a Pulitzer-prize winning historian and writer, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1878 and died in 1949, in Southport, Conn.

Adams was not related to the famous Presidents Adams, although his scholarly work covered them, and ironically, there's a famous quote often mis-credited to John Adams that James Truslow Adams actually coined: "There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live."

Had John Adams lived another 103 years beyond his 90, he might have liked to take credit for that line, and he would have been even more covetous of another of James Truslow Adams' sage observations. This one runs through our daily discourse as a deep, sometimes scarcely detectable stream. In a 1931 manifesto he entitled "The Epic of America," he wrote:

"That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

"That dream," of course, is the American Dream, and Adams, who first used the term, felt the dream was endangered in the 1920s and 1930s, at risk because a prevailing venal need for material gain made it vulnerable.

In the housing business, many equate the American Dream with homeownership because for so long the two notions ran hand in hand. Of course, as access to homeownership becomes harder and harder for a bigger and bigger share of American people, many think that it's time to sever the mental and emotional ties between the American Dream and the aspiration to be a homeowner in America.

Pew Research has just released data on the American Dream, and it's interesting that fewer than one in five Americans (from among the sampled group) feels that the American Dream is "out of reach" for his or her family. Pew Research analyst Samantha Smith writes:

While people differ on the meaning of the American dream, very few – just 11% of the public – say “being wealthy” is essential to their own view of it.

By contrast, majorities say “freedom of choice in how to live” (77%), having a good family life (70%) and retiring comfortably (60%) are essential to their view of the American dream.

Smaller shares say making valuable community contributions (48%), owning a home (43%) and having a successful career (also 43%) are essential to their view of the American dream, but relatively few (no more than 9%) say these are not important to the American dream.

Still, many Americans' dream of becoming a homeowner is synchronized with many components people mention as key to the American Dream, well beyond the tangible, material wealth created by having equity in real estate.

Homeownership is in some respects outward evidence of the American Dream at work, for it is place that signifies to oneself and others a sense of arrival, of accountability for social capital around oneself, and of sanctuary and agency.

This is why it's of utmost importance that elected national representatives in Washington count more inclusive access to homeownership a non-negotiably high priority as they engineer transformation in the current taxation system.

Not all-inclusive, mind you, but more than today.

Census Bureau data just released as part of the Housing Vacancy Survey series notes that the total rate of homeownership in the United States inched up two-tenths of a percentage point to 63.9%. That's a statistical wash vs. the second quarter figure.

National Association of Home Builders economist Na Zhao spotlights the silver lining trend here:

Younger homebuyers are gradually entering the housing market after the Recession. Compared to a year ago, the homeownership rates among households ages 35-44 increased from 58.4% to 59.3%. Millennials also registered noticeable gains – from 35.2% to 35.6%.

A correlative thought we'd add to James Truslow Adams' remark about two educations. "One should teach us how to make a living; the other should teach us how to pay of the debt more quickly."