By Manuel Gutierrez, Consulting Economist to NKBA

 

The homeownership rate — the percentage of U.S. households who own their home — hit a decade high of 66 percent in the first quarter of this year. This marked an increase of over half a percentage point compared to the same quarter a year earlier, and a 0.6 points increase from the homeownership rate of 65.4 percent in Q1 of last year. The homeownership rate increase seen over the last year resulted in an additional 1.8 million households becoming homeowners. Homeowners who, in the near future, will spend additional dollars on remodeling their homes.

 

  • Compared to the previous quarter, the homeownership rate increased by 0.1 percentage points overall, but it fell in two age groups. Households of 45 to 54 years saw the biggest decline, with their rate falling to 70.1 percent, a half point drop from the previous quarter. And over 64 years households saw a drop of two-tenths of a point to 78.8 percent.
  • Among racial and ethnic groups, Asian households saw the biggest gains, with their homeownership rate rising by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year to 61.6 percent. This rate was the second-highest among all groups, lower only than the White households’ rate of 74.5 percent. Black households also gained from last year, up by 1.8 points. However, they still had the lowest rate at 45.8 percent. Hispanic-headed households saw an increase of 0.8 points, bringing their rate up to 49.7 percent.
  • Regionally, the Midwest had the highest homeownership rate, increasing by 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 70.3 percent. Second highest was the South with 67.3 percent, down by 0.1 points compared to the previous year, followed by the Northeast, up by 0.9 points to 62.7 percent. Finally, even though the West saw the biggest increase, rising by 1.7 points to a rate of 61.9 percent, it remained the lowest in the nation — and nearly 5 points lower than the U.S. average of 66.0 percent.
  • There were only 662 thousand homeowner vacant homes available for sale, making the vacancy rate just 0.8 percent — marking the lowest rate since the mid-60s when these data first became available. The number of vacant for rent units stood at 3.0 million, a 5.8 percent vacancy rate. Although not the lowest historical vacancy rate, it was 1.5 percentage points lower than the long-term average of 7.3 percent.