Tuesday, April 29, 2014

First-Time Homebuyer Watch: 1st Quarter 2014

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, first quarter 2014: 47.5%

Another decline in the homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34. The 47.5 percent rate recorded for this age group in the first quarter of 2014 was 1.4 percentage points below their rate a year ago and 1.1 percentage points below their fourth quarter 2013 rate. 

Householders aged 30 to 34 were once the nation's first-time homebuyers. Historically, this was the age group in which homeownership became the norm—rising above 50 percent. But beginning in 2007, the homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds went into a tailspin. In the second quarter of 2011, the rate fell below 50 percent for the first time. It bottomed out at 46.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012 and has bobbled around 48 percent in every quarter since.

The only good news for the housing industry in the latest Census Bureau release is the rise in the homeownership rate of householders aged 35 to 39—the new age of first-time home buying. The homeownership rate of 35-to-39-year-olds climbed from 55.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to 56.5 percent in the first quarter of 2014—a 1.2 percentage point gain.

Nationally, the homeownership rate slipped to 64.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014, down from 65.0 percent one year ago.

Source: Census Bureau, Housing Vacancy Survey

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