Homeownership Continues to Decline

By:
Peter King | July 30, 2010

The U.S. homeownership rate continued to decline in the second quarter of the year, falling to 66.9 percent, the lowest level since the end of 2009.

Homeownership was down from 67.1 percent in the first quarter of the year, apparently due to rising bank repossessions, although the homeowner vacancy rate fell to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent the previous quarter. The figures were released Thursday by the Census Department.
 
The vacancy rate among apartments remained unchanged at 10.6 percent.
 
U.S. homeownership has been declining steadily since reaching a peak of 69.2 percent in 2004. Homeowner vacancies have been rising as well, after holding steady at 1.7 percent throughout most of the first half of the decade.
 
Apartment vacancies, on the other hand, rose throughout the housing boom, then began to fall after the housing market peaked and fewer people purchased homes, but then began to rise again as the recession set in.
 
The homeowner vacancy rate was highest in principal cities, at 3.0 percent, down from 3.2 percent the one year earlier. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate in suburbs and outlying areas was rising, up to 2.4 percent from 2.2 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, in the second quarter of 2009.
 
Rates of homeownership among the four major U.S. regions were highest in the Midwest, at 70.8 percent, and lowest in the West, at 61.4 percent. The West also showed the largest quarterly decline of the four, down half a percentage point from 61.9 percent in the first quarter of the year.
 
Home ownership rates in the South were at 69.1 percent and were at 64.2 percent in the Northeast.

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