Every once in a while, I realize that something I long understood to be true isn't. This happened to me recently while I was perusing data charts at the St. Louis Fed website (I know, I need a life). For years I have seen the following chart printed in business and economics-oriented magazines and newspapers.
Between 1965 and the second quarter of this year, the homeownership rate has been fairly stable between about 63% and 69%. Or has it? The chart divides the number of owner-occupied homes by the total number of occupied homes. It really doesn't show what percentage of people own homes at different stages of their lives.
Below is a chart of the percentage of homeowners by age, in this case between 45 and 54.
Household homeownership headed by someone between the ages of 45 and 54 remained very steady between 1990 and the beginning of the Great Recession, ranging between 74% and 77%. That number fell to 68% in 2018 and has not fully recovered since.
This comports with my observations within my community and among the families of our clients. The only age group that has escaped this decline in homeownership is the one comprising people aged 75 and over.
How about young families starting out in life? Homeownership for those between 25 and 34 peaked at 50% in 2006 and bottomed out at 37% in 2016. There has been some recovery, but homeownership for this group is still below the long-term average and they are once more losing ground as shown on the chart below.
My wife and I bought our first home in Brielle, New Jersey when I was 23 and she was 21. Interest rates were sky high, the house was tiny, but we loved it. That opportunity is no longer available to the majority of our young people.
The next time that I read how homeownership today is about the same as the long-term average and higher than it was in the 1980s, I will know that we are measuring the wrong thing.
* YCharts. US Home Ownership Rate (I:USHOR). Accessed on 08.16.2025
** https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CXUHOMEOWNLB0405M# 8/11/2025
*** https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CXUHOMEOWNLB0409M#
**** https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CXUHOMEOWNLB0403M#