Homeownership Held Steady in First Quarter

After unexpectedly falling in the fourth quarter from a 12-year high, homeownership remained stable in the first quarter, indicating that the fourth quarter’s data collection issues may not have been a big deal after all.

When the last round of homeownership data was published in February, the Census Bureau stated that its data collection may not have been on par with previous years due to the pandemic and its inability to conduct as many in-person interviews as it had in the past.

But now, the Census is singing a different tune, stating that its data collection operations were still affected by the pandemic, but to a “much lesser extent than previous quarter.”

And according to the latest Census report, the national homeownership rate was 65.6% in the first quarter, which the Census states is “not statistically different” from the fourth quarter’s rate of 65.8%.

Broken down by region, the Midwest had the highest homeownership rate in the first quarter (70.3%). That was followed by the South (67.4%), Northeast (63.1%), and West (59.7%).

According to the Census, the homeownership rate in the Midwest was higher than it was in the first quarter of 2020, while the rates in the Northeast, South, and West were not statistically different.

Broken down by age range, householders aged 65 years and over had the highest homeownership rate (79.3%), while those under 35 had the lowest rate (38.1%).

According to the Census, the first quarter homeownership rate of each of the tracked age groups was not statistically different than the homeownership rate in the first quarter of 2020, meaning that each group held steady over the last year.