First-Time Homebuyer Watch: 3rd Quarter 2017

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, third quarter 2017: 45.9%

The homeownership rate of households headed by people aged 30 to 34 inched upward in the third quarter of 2017. The age group's 45.9 percent homeownership rate was higher than the record low of 44.6 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2017, but not significantly different from the third quarter 2016 rate. 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 been slipping toward the 50-percent threshold. In the third quarter of 2017 the homeownership rate of 35-to-39-year-olds was 56.6 percent, well below the peak of 65.7 percent in the first quarter of 2007.


Nationally, the homeownership rate was 63.9 percent in the third quarter of 2017, a bit higher than the 63.5 percent of a year earlier, but the difference was not statistically significant. 

Source: Census Bureau, Housing Vacancy Survey