First-Time Homebuyer Watch: 4th Quarter 2016

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, fourth quarter 2016: 45.6%

The homeownership rate of households headed by people aged 30 to 34 was unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2016. Their 45.6 percent homeownership rate in the 4th quarter was above the all-time low of 44.8 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2016. The difference in the rates is not statistically significant. The stability in the homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds over the past two years suggests that after years of decline the rate may have bottomed out.  


Historically, homeownership became the norm in the 30-to-34 age group—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's been stuck there ever since. The new age of first-time home buying is 35 to 39, but even this age group has been slipping toward the 50-percent threshold. In the fourth quarter of 2016 the homeownership rate of 35-to-39-year-olds fell to 55.0 percent, an all-time low. The homeownership rate of 35-to-39-year-olds peaked in the first quarter of 2007 at 65.7 percent.


Nationally, the homeownership rate was 63.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, a bit below the  63.8 percent of a year earlier. 

Source: Census Bureau, Housing Vacancy Survey