An Overview of Housing Trends in 2020

After the standard American Community Survey was disrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic, experimental yearly estimates reveal a snapshot of the 2020 housing market during a critical time for the country. According to the National Association of Realtors, 65% of US homes were owner-occupied in 2020 and the highest rates of homeownership were in affordable areas in states like Maine, West Virginia, Wyoming, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

Higher demand in 2020 also sustained low vacancy rates with nearly 16.4 million vacant housing units, or 12% of total US homes. Also, as more people prioritized working from home during the pandemic, 88% of households reported access to broadband internet as it became a crucial utility for a vast majority of the population.

The American Community Survey is one of the most comprehensive sources of U.S. population and housing information. Nevertheless, the pandemic complicated the operations of the ACS in a variety of ways. For instance, both mail operations and in-person interviews were suspended starting from mid-March through June 2020 due to the stay-at-home orders. Despite the Bureau's efforts to mitigate these collection disruptions, they weren't able to limit the effects of the pandemic on data quality. As a result, the U.S. Census Bureau recently released experimental 1-year ACS estimates for 2020 instead of their standard products.

This piece uses these experimental estimates to provide a snapshot of housing in America in 2020. While the Census Bureau does not recommend comparing the 2020 ACS 1-year experimental estimates with the standard ACS estimates from previous years, we provide housing statistics for the year 2020 only. Going one step further, we also compared these housing statistics at the local level to identify the states that outperformed in 2020.

For ACS findings in 2020 …

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