The homeownership rate is one of the most tracked Census statistics — and one of the most politically charged. Here's what the data shows about who owns homes and why.
The homeownership rate — the share of occupied housing units owned by their occupants — sits at approximately 65.4% nationally in the 2023 ACS. That's close to the historical average of the postwar era, but the composition of who owns has shifted dramatically: ownership is older, whiter, and wealthier than at any point since World War II.
The homeownership rankings by state show that ownership is highest in the Mountain South and Midwest — West Virginia (73%), Minnesota (72%), Michigan (71%), and Iowa (71%) lead the country. At the bottom are Washington DC (~40%, overwhelmingly renter-occupied), New York (~53%), California (~55%), and Hawaii (~57%). These lower-ownership states contain major cities where renting has always been the norm due to dense housing stock and high property values.
The homeownership gap between white and Black households is approximately 28 percentage points — about the same as it was in the 1960s before the Fair Housing Act. White non-Hispanic households own at about a 72% rate; Black households at about 44%. Hispanic ownership has risen over the past two decades but still lags white rates by about 25 points. This gap represents one of the most durable forms of wealth inequality in America, given that home equity is the primary wealth-building mechanism for middle-class families.
Homeownership among adults under 35 has fallen to approximately 38% nationally, the lowest rate since such data was tracked. High student debt loads, delayed household formation, rapidly rising home prices in the 2020s, and tighter mortgage lending standards post-2008 have collectively made first-time homeownership increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, homeownership among those 65+ remains above 79%.
Several factors explain why some places have high ownership rates: single-family housing stock dominance (common in Midwestern and Southern suburbs), lower home prices relative to income (enabling more people to qualify for mortgages), and cultural norms around homeownership. Cities with dense multi-unit housing stock — New York, Chicago, San Francisco — tend to have lower ownership rates regardless of income, simply because the housing type doesn't lend itself to owner-occupancy as easily.
The roughly one-third of Americans who rent face different housing risks than owners. Renters have no direct benefit from home price appreciation, face the risk of lease non-renewal or displacement, and are more directly exposed to rent increases. As noted in our article on the housing crisis, about half of renter households are cost-burdened — spending 30%+ of income on rent and utilities. The city homeownership rankings can help you see where renting is the majority tenure and where ownership predominates.
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