The proportion of USA households that own homes has matched its lowest level in 51 years – evidence that rising property prices, high rents and stagnant pay have made it hard for many to buy.
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Almost 63 percent of US households owned their home in the second quarter of the year – down from 63.5 percent in the previous quarter.
The drop extends a years-long decline from the last housing boom, in part because of tight credit and a shift toward renting in the aftermath of the crash.
“One of the biggest hurdles now is affordability”, Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner told Bloomberg. Home prices rose 5.2 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of values in 20 cities released this week. This has made it harder for first-time buyers to save for down payments, thereby delaying their ability to purchase a home. Millennial home ownership has fallen 4.9 percent since the same period in 2010.
Fewer millennials are buying homes than in the past six years, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. McLaughlin cautioned, though, that the decrease in homeownership from a year ago was not statistically significant.
The homeownership rate, the proportion of.
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The fall underscores a trend affecting all age groups.
