Homeownership down most since Great Depression
Levels of homeownership were at historic highs when the housing crisis began. | AP Photo Close
By TIM MAK | 10/6/11 2:45 PM EDT
Over the past decade, homeownership has dropped by the largest margin since the Great Depression, the Census Bureau said Thursday.
Homeownership fell to 65.1 percent nationally in 2010, down from 66.2 percent in 2000, a new Census Bureau analysis says.
The decline of 1.1 percentage points over 10 years was the most drastic change since the Depression period of 1930 to 1940, when the homeownership rate dropped by 4 percentage points over 10 years to 43.6 percent.
Despite a dramatic drop in homeownership from 2000 to 2010, homeownership still remains relatively high when compared to other periods in American history. This is because levels of ownership were at historic highs when the housing crisis began.
The 66.2 percent homeownership rate in 2000 was the highest ever recorded by the Census Bureau, and so even with a large drop over the past decade, the current level of homeownership is still the second highest ever recorded.
Throughout much of U.S. history, homeownership was much lower than it is now. Indeed, from the 1890s to 1940s, homeownership was around 45 percent. A huge jump in homeownership in the 1950s started to make the figure rise, a trend that continued until the past decade.
Much of the decline in homeownership in the past decade can be explained by the bursting of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis. With many homeowners “underwater” on their mortgages, some have decided to give up ownership of their homes for other forms of tenure, such as renting or short-term housing.
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