News
US Homeownership Nears 48-Year Low
Looks like the homeownership rate didn’t actually hit bottom—it just fell further.
In Q1 the rate came in at 63.5%, down from 63.8% in Q4 2015, according to estimates published Thursday by the Commerce Department.
That puts the rate ominously near the 48-year low of 63.4% experienced in Q2 2015, the Wall Street Journal reports.
At the end of last year experts said the homeownership rate had stabilized and could even start ticking up after its long and steady fall following the housing crisis.
And while the numbers reveal the experts were wrong, economists caution against reading too much into such a small change—at least we’re not seeing the significant decreases we experienced just a few years ago. [WSJ]
