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> Homes are unaffordable for most people today, to the point where renting can be more cost effective than buying. Around 65% of housing is owner-occupied in t

> Homes are unaffordable for most people today, to the point where renting can be more cost effective than buying. Around 65% of housing is owner-occupied in the US. That doesn’t entirely preclude it from being “unaffordable for most people” but it is evidence against that claim.

kubb 1y ago
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Housing Survey (AHS) collects data on when owner-occupiers moved into their homes [1]. Out of 86 million owner-occupied homes, almost 80% (68.3 million) were moved into before 2019, before the affordability crisis. The number of owner-occupied houses that were moved into between 2022-2023 has declined by half from 2020-2021. Meanwhile, rentals raised by 50% in the same time frame. This is evidence to the claim that house ownership is getting less affordable, and it's more solid than just looking at ownership percentage, because it shows a trend. However, even the ownership percentage number looks really poor in comparison with U.S.' greatest rivals, China, who have a 96% home ownership rate. [1] https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/data/interactive/ahstablecreator.html https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/data/interactive...