Home Ownership Rate Lowest in 15 Years as Numbers of Rented Homes Increase

According to a recent report issued by the Census Bureau, home ownership in the US has moved down to 65.4%, which is the lowest seen in the past 15 years. In 2004, the rate was at its peak during the 2nd and last quarters of the year when it moved up to 69.2%. This happened when the housing market was booming. Since 2006, this rate started falling steeply when the rate of foreclosures started increasing in the housing market.

During the first ninety days of 2012, a large number of willing buyers came up to rent properties whereas millions of homeowners were forced to opt for rented homes after losing their properties to foreclosure. After a nationwide survey, it was found that the national rate of vacant homes was 8.8% from January to March 2012 whereas a year back the rate stood at 9.7%. On the other hand, the total number of rented homes moved up by 1,400,000 during the first three months of this year and foreclosures declined by 491,000 homes.

In the present census report, the current figures for the entire region of Philadelphia are missing. According to the 2010 census report, the rates of home ownership in the 4 suburban counties in Pennsylvania were almost similar to the rates recorded in the 2000 census. In 2010, the home ownership in this city declined to 54%, which stood at 59% in 2000. However, no such comparative data was available for other counties like Burlington, Camden and Gloucester.

Last week, along with this report, the Census Bureau also stated that many construction companies are coming up with new constructions and renovations. The rate of spending in these constructions increased by 0.1% this March in comparison to February and this rate is almost 6% up from 2011. Compared to February 2012, the rate of spending in residential constructions moved up by 2.9% in March and for single-family houses, the month-to-month increase was 3.8%.

However, the rate of multi-family construction spending dropped by 3.1% with respect to February and a housing economist at IHS Global Insight, Patrick Newport stated in this context that there was “nothing to be concerned about” because the recent increase in construction licenses shows that there could be a significant increase in the number of new housing units this year and in the coming year as well.

Photo by Jscreationzs.