The homeownership rate was 64.2% in the first quarter of 2019, virtually unchanged from the rate in the first quarter 2018 but 0.6 percentage points lower than the rate in the fourth quarter 2018 (64.8%), the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
National vacancy rates in the first quarter 2019 were 7.0% for rental housing and 1.4% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate of 7.0% was virtually unchanged from the rate in the first quarter 2018, but 0.4 percentage points higher than the rate in the fourth quarter 2018 (6.6%).
The homeowner vacancy rate of 1.4% was 0.1 percentage point lower than the rate in the first quarter 2018 (1.5%) but not statistically different from the rate in the fourth quarter 2018.
“The homeownership rate decreased to 64.2%from 64.8% in the first quarter, the first drop in two years," commented Joel Kan, associate vp of economic and industry forecasts for the Mortgage Bankers Association. "As seen in today’s report, the market volatility and decline in consumer confidence that we saw in late 2018 and early 2019 seemed to confirm what other housing indicators showed: a somewhat slow first couple of months of the year for the housing market."
Kan continued, "A large portion of the decline was driven by the younger age groups, both households under 35 and households between 35 and 44 years old. Owner occupied households grew at a slower rate than the past two years, but still exceeded 1 million in the first quarter. Renter households increased almost 500,000 compared to a year ago.”
