U.S. Homeownership on the Upswing

Census Bureau data show that the U.S. homeownership rate was 64.3 percent in this year's second quarter, continuing to gain traction since Q2 2016's cycle low.

The number of total households grew by 2 million to 121 million in this year's second quarter. By age group, homeownership for all ages under 54 years grew annually, with households ages 45-54 seeing the largest gain (1.3 percent), The National Association of Home Builders reports. Millennial homeownership grew from 35.3 to 36.5 percent in that time, and the NAHB concludes, "it suggests that Millennials are gradually returning to the for-sale housing market," though for that age range, the homeownership rate is still 5.4 percent lower than before the recession.

The housing stock-based Housing Vacancy Survey revealed that the number of households increased to 121.2 million in the second quarter of 2018, 2.3 million higher than a year ago. The gains are largely due to strong owner household formation. Indeed, the number of homeowner households has been rising since the third quarter 2016, while the number of renter households has been on the downward trend. In the second quarter 2018, the number of homeowners increased by 2.2 million, while the number of renter households rose by 146,000.

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