4 ms·

First of all, agreed that housing prices are insane, even two-income households struggle to buy in my city. But taking a more long-term view, in the US the own

First of all, agreed that housing prices are insane, even two-income households struggle to buy in my city. But taking a more long-term view, in the US the owner-occupied housing rate about 65%, which has not changed a ton in the last 50-60 years (high was 69% in 2005 and low was 63% in 1965). Granted the market has changed a lot, we have much bigger houses, and more two-income families to pay for those more expensive houses. https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2024/04/30/home-ownership-rate-q1-2024#:~:text=The%20Census%20Bureau%20released%20its,lowest%20rate%20in%20two%20years https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2024/04/3....

tmnvix 2y ago
Worth keeping in mind that the typical measure of the home ownership rate is really a measure of the proportion of people living in a home with the owner. So a 25 year old living with parents counts towards and not against this. Likewise anyone else sharing the house (boarders, etc). I suspect that the number of people in this situation has increased in the past couple of decades due to housing affordability.
- imperfect_light 2y ago
  The denominator in this graph is houses, not people, so adult children living/not living at home would have no impact.
  - 8note 2y ago
    The numerator is some multiplication of people and houses and people per houses though, with the houses and people counted differently on each multiplier though, so it still matters
briHass 2y ago
Not only has the owner-occupied rate stayed near constant, but that rate itself is an average of all income levels. If one just looks at the rate of homeownership among those making more than the median income (family/individual) ~$74K for a family (~55K individual), that number jumps up to 79%. Given that this number doesn't take preferences into account, I think it's pretty reasonable that almost everyone (>80%) making at least the average (median) salary owns their home.

tmnvix 2y ago

Worth keeping in mind that the typical measure of the home ownership rate is really a measure of the proportion of people living in a home with the owner. So a 25 year old living with parents counts towards and not against this. Likewise anyone else sharing the house (boarders, etc). I suspect that the number of people in this situation has increased in the past couple of decades due to housing affordability.

imperfect_light 2y ago
The denominator in this graph is houses, not people, so adult children living/not living at home would have no impact.
- 8note 2y ago
  The numerator is some multiplication of people and houses and people per houses though, with the houses and people counted differently on each multiplier though, so it still matters

briHass 2y ago

Not only has the owner-occupied rate stayed near constant, but that rate itself is an average of all income levels. If one just looks at the rate of homeownership among those making more than the median income (family/individual) ~$74K for a family (~55K individual), that number jumps up to 79%. Given that this number doesn't take preferences into account, I think it's pretty reasonable that almost everyone (>80%) making at least the average (median) salary owns their home.