First Quarter 2012 Homeownership Rates

Overall, 65.1 percent of households owned their home in the 1st quarter of 2012, according to the Census Bureau. The homeownership rate fell 1 percentage point between the first quarters of 2011 and 2012. Here are the important findings from today's 1st quarter 2012 data release...

• Over the past year, the homeownership rate fell in all but one age group, and the increase among 70-to-74-year-olds was within the margin of error. 
• The biggest homeownership rate decline over the past four quarters has been among householders aged 35 to 39, their homeownership rate falling by 4.4 percentage points to 56.4 percent.
• Fewer than half of householders aged 30 to 34 are homeowners (48.3 percent, down from an annual high of 57.4 percent in 2004), and their sharply lower homeownership rate is being carried into the next older age group as they enter their late thirties.
• The only good news for the housing industry is the apparent stability in the homeownership rate of householders aged 25 to 29. At 34.2 percent in the 1st quarter of 2012, the homeownership rate of this age group has barely budged for the past three quarters. Historically (with data going back to 1982), the annual homeownership rate 25-to-29-year-olds bottomed out at 33.6 percent in 1992 and 1993 and peaked at 41.8 percent in 2006.  

Source: Bureau of the Census, Housing Vacancy Survey