The Future Course of U.S. Homeownership Rates

Donald R. Haurin
The Ohio State University

The U.S. homeownership rate fell from 69.2 percent in the second quarter of 2004 to 63.4 percent in the second quarter of 2015, reversing the rise from 63.8 percent in the second quarter of 1994 (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2015). The question for this article is whether the rate will plunge another 20 percentage points, or by nearly one-third, by 2050. The largest previous recorded U.S. decline was a bit less than one-tenth during the Great Depression (from 1930 to 1940).