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Homeownership Rising Despite Seasonal Volatility
Thursday, February 4, 2021
The homeownership rate fell in the fourth
quarter down 1.6 percentage points from its third quarter level but remained
higher than in the same quarter in 2019. The U.S. Census Bureau said the rate,
65.8 percent, was up from 65.1 percent a year earlier. The national rate had topped 69 percent at
several points during the housing boom in 2004 and 2005 before retreating. It
declined steadily through the Great Recession and into the recovery, reaching a
low of 62.9 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Homeownership is consistently highest in
the Midwest, and that region posted an annual increase of more than a point in
the fourth quarter to 70.8 percent. The South was second at 67.7 percent, also
a point higher year-over-year. The rate was 62.6 percent in the Northeast and
60.4 percent in the West. The latter two regions were essentially unchanged
from the fourth quarter of 2019.
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