Home Ownership Rate

The home ownership rate is the share of occupied housing units in a given area that are occupied by their owner rather than rented or held under some other tenure arrangement, expressed as the ratio of owner occupied units to total residential units. It is tracked as a broad measure of housing market conditions and household wealth building capacity, since it reflects the combined effect of housing costs, credit availability and household income on people's ability to buy rather than rent a home. The rate is reported at the national level and is also compared across demographic groups and regions to study disparities in access to homeownership.