But it's still well below the national homeownership rate of 66.2 percent. California's average household size rose from 2.79 people per household in 1990 to 2.87 in 2000. Between 1990 and 2000, the state's population grew 13.8 percent while its total housing units increased by 9.2 percent. Helping to explain how population growth could increase so much faster than housing growth between 1990 and 2000, demographers point to a significant rise in the state's average household size and the sharp decline in the state's overall housing vacancy rate. California's average household size grew to 2.87 in 2000 from 2.79 people in 1990.
Experts attribute much of that increase to inflows of migrants.
Census data show most of the capital region's housing market tightened in the past decade, too. Demographers noted that as the state's housing market tightened further over the past decade, making both rental and for-sale housing far more expensive, a relatively small but growing number of Californians had the means to buy a second home for only occasional use. That's up from about 24 percent of all vacancies that fell into that category in 1990. In Sacramento County, the overall rental vacancy rate dropped from 6.76 percent in 1990 to 4.8 percent in 2000. But the decline was far sharper for some specific communities.