First-Time Homebuyer Watch: 1st Quarter 2017

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, first quarter 2017: 44.6%

The homeownership rate of households headed by people aged 30 to 34 fell in the first quarter of 2017. The age group's 44.6 percent homeownership rate is a new record low, although not statistically different from the previous record low. The homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds appears to have found a new normal in the mid-forties.  


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 slipped toward the 50-percent threshold. In the first quarter of 2017 the homeownership rate of 35-to-39-year-olds was 56.6 percent, down from a peak of 65.7 percent a decade ago in the first quarter of 2007.


Nationally, the homeownership rate was 63.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017, not statistically different from the 63.5 percent of a year earlier. 

Source: Census Bureau, Housing Vacancy Survey