U.S. homeownership fell to the lowest rate on record in the second quarter, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
The homeownership rate fell from 63.5 percent in the first quarter to 62.9 percent in the second, tied for the lowest level since early 1965, when records were first kept.
Homeownership has been plunging since the mid-2000s in the wake of the housing bubble’s collapse and amid demographic changes in the U.S., particularly the aging of the baby boomers out of peak homeownership years and the population growth of minorities more likely to rent than buy.
The only age group that saw a rising homeownership rate over the past year was 35-44-year-olds, with younger and older people turning more to renting.
“Broadly speaking, the falling homeownership rate is a sign that renting isn’t only for those just starting out or making a transition, but is becoming an increasingly viable longer-term option for many households,” Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell wrote in reaction to Thursday’s release.
“It also means incomes are not yet rising quickly enough to broadly support new homeownership, and that inventory remains too tight to allow for meaningful access to affordable housing.”
