page_title: Home-ownership in the United States
hierarchical_section_title: Home-ownership in the United States
caption_attribution_description: Ranch style home in North Salinas, California
context_page_description: The home-ownership rate in the United States is percentage of homes that are owned by their occupants. In 2009, it remained similar to that in some other post-industrial nations with 67.4% of all occupied housing units being occupied by the unit's owner. Home ownership rates vary depending on demographic characteristics of households such as ethnicity, race, type of household as well as location and type of settlement. In 2018, homeownership dropped to a lower rate than it was in 1994, with a rate of 64.2%.
  Since 1960, the homeownership rate in the United States has remained relatively stable having decreased 1.0% since 1960 when 65.2% of American households owned their own home. Additionally, homeowner equity has fallen steadily since World War II and is now less than 50% of the value of homes on average. Homeownership was most common in rural areas and suburbs with three quarters of suburban households being homeowners. Among the country's regions the Midwestern states had the highest homeownership rate with the Western states having the lowest.
context_section_description: The home-ownership rate in the United States is percentage of homes that are owned by their occupants.  In 2009, it remained similar to that in some other post-industrial nations with 67.4% of all occupied housing units being occupied by the unit's owner. Home ownership rates vary depending on demographic characteristics of households such as ethnicity, race, type of household as well as location and type of settlement. In 2018, homeownership dropped to a lower rate than it was in 1994, with a rate of 64.2%.
  Since 1960, the homeownership rate in the United States has remained relatively stable having decreased 1.0% since 1960 when 65.2% of American households owned their own home. Additionally, homeowner equity has fallen steadily since World War II and is now less than 50% of the value of homes on average.  Homeownership was most common in rural areas and suburbs with three quarters of suburban households being homeowners. Among the country's regions the Midwestern states had the highest homeownership rate with the Western states having the lowest. Recent research has examined the decline in homeownership rates among households with "heads" aged 25 to 44 years, which fell substantially between 1980 and 2000 and recovered only partially during the 2001-05 housing boom. This research indicates that a trend toward marrying later and the increase in household earnings risk that occurred after 1980 account for a large share of the decline in young homeownership.
  In general, homeowners in the United States also tend to have higher incomes and households residing in their own home were more likely to be families (as opposed to individuals) than were their tenant counterparts. Among racial demographics, European Americans had the country's highest homeownership rate, while those identifying as being African American had the lowest homeownership rate. One study shows that homeownership rates appear correlated with higher school attainment.
  The name "homeownership rate" can be misleading. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is the percentage of homes that are occupied by the owner. It is not the percentage of adults that own their own home. This latter percentage will be significantly lower than the homeownership rate because many households that are owner-occupied contain adult relatives (often young adults, descendants of the owner) who do not own their own home, and because single building multi-bedroom rental units can contain more than one adult, all of whom do not own a home.
  The term "homeownership rate" can also be misleading because it includes households that owe on a mortgage and do not fully own the equity in their own that they are said to "own". According to ATTOM Data Research, only "34 percent of all American homeowners have 100 percent equity in their properties — they’ve either paid off their entire mortgage debt or they never had a mortgage".
  According to  the Financial Post the cost of the average U.S. house in 2016 was US$187,000.
caption: A single-family home valued at roughly $550,000 in Salinas, California.
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