• Did you know that the US homeownership rate in 2010-2012 is (statistically speaking) no different than the rates in Colorado and Georgia?
  • On November 14, the Census Bureau released a review of homeownership rates and housing valuespdf based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS) 3-year estimates.  These estimates are based on surveys of homeowners from a broad, 3-year period that enable researchers to examine trends in more localized areas, places with populations as small as 20,000.  (The 1-year estimates from the ACS cover areas with populations of 65,000 or more.)
  • The national homeownership rate measured by the ACS fell 1.7 percentage points from 66.4 in 2007-2009 to 64.7 in 2010-2012.  In 2010-2012, the national homeownership rate of 64.7 was closest to that in Georgia, 64.9 (± 0.2) and Colorado 64.9 (±0.3).
  • West Virginia had the highest homeownership rate in 2010-2012 at 72.9 percent.  In the 2007-2009 period, Minnesota had the highest homeownership rate at 74.2 percent.
  • The District of Columbia (41.6 percent ) and New York (53.9 percent) had the lowest homeownership rates among states and DC in 2010-2012.  These two areas also had the lowest rates in 2007-2009.
  • Forty-one states and DC saw statistically significant declines in homeownership rates in 2010-2012 compared with 2007-2009.  Nationally, the increase in households was not quite enough to offset the decrease in homeownership rate meaning that there were roughly 600,000 fewer homeowners nationally in the later period.   How did your state fare?
  • The ACS data is based on surveys of homeowners.  The 2007-2009 estimates are based on surveys taken from January 2007 to December 2009.  The 2010-2012 estimates are based on surveys taken from January 2010 to December 2012.