Wednesday, November 03, 2021

First-Time Homebuyer Watch: 3rd Quarter 2021

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34, third quarter 2021: 48.9%

Homeownership rates in the third quarter of 2021 are little changed from rates in the previous two quarters  and well below the levels recorded in 2020—when the coronavirus pandemic greatly reduced the response rate to the Census Bureau's Housing Vacancy Survey and consequently distorted homeownership trends.  

The overall homeownership rate in the third quarter of 2021 was 65.4 percent, identical to the rate in the second quarter of 2021. The nation's homeownership rate peaked at 69.0 percent in 2004.

The homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds (the age group in which householders typically buy their first home) was a bit higher than the rate in the first two quarters of 2021 and could be a sign of increased homebuying in the age group. Except for the 50.1 percent blip in the third quarter of 2020, the homeownership rate of 30-to-34-year-olds has been below 50 percent in every quarter since the second quarter of 2011—the aftermath of the Great Recession. Until 2011, the age group's homeownership rate had never sunk below 50 percent in the data series that began in 1982. 

Homeownership rate of householders aged 30 to 34 for selected years, 1982 to 2020 and by quarter in 2021
2021: 48.9% (third quarter)
2021: 48.0% (second quarter)
2021: 48.2% (first quarter)
2020: 49.1% (pandemic bump)
2019: 48.0%
2016: 45.4% (low point)
2015: 45.9%
2011: 49.8% (first time below 50 percent)
2010: 51.6%
2004: 57.4% (high point)
2000: 54.6%
1990: 51.8%
1982: 57.1% 

Source: Census Bureau, Housing Vacancy Survey

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