Currently, this desire is being put under pressure by the financial crisis and uncertainty in the eyes of consumers, about job security, house prices and access to mortgages.
But longer term there still remains a shortage of housing supply.
The housing crisis has got the industry talking, with all manner of solutions being posed to solve the supply and demand conundrum.
We are currently building record low levels of new housing; in 2010 house building was at its lowest peace-time level for a century.
A recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) examined the extent of the problem and proposed three solutions that it strongly recommends be taken forward.
Firstly, the report suggests that it should be made easier for institutions to invest in property; secondly that there should be more land released by Local Authorities for development; and thirdly that there should be a shift in housing aid from housing benefit to investment in bricks and mortar.
The IPPR also proposes two long-term solutions that are: expanding the Green Investment Bank into a National Investment Bank, which would have a remit for funding housing development; and reforming the development industry to discourage land banking.
Elsewhere, BBC News Online recently published an article drawing together eight radical solutions to the housing crisis that attracted almost a thousand comments from users.
Ideas included encouraging the elderly to sell their big homes to families, containing population growth, banning second homes and encouraging generations of families to live together.
We know that the government Housing Strategy is due to be published shortly and we await this with anticipation. Whether it will address some of the big challenges on housing supply remains to be seen.
We also eagerly await the publication of the National Planning Policy Framework, which will look at ways to increase the development of brown field sites.
Despite the numerous options proposed for increasing housing supply, the way I see it is we only really have two options: start building more houses or experience a culture-shift in our expectations of home ownership.
Paul Broadhead is head of mortgage policy at the BSA
