As described in a previous post, a recent release from the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy and Homeownership (CPS/HVS) survey shows that the US homeownership rate increased to 64.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.

In addition to this overall result, unpublished tables from the CPS/HVS contain a homeownership rate for “all minorities”, which also improved, going from 46.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 47.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 (Figure 1).

Figure 2 breaks down the homeownership rate by race and ethnicity. From the fourth quarter of 2016 to the fourth quarter of 2017, each minority group experienced increases in homeownership: “other” households (includes Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Alaska Native households) saw the largest increase of 1.7 percentage points to 58.1 percent, the black homeownership rate rose by 0.6 percentage points to 43.0 percent, and the white homeownership rate gained 0.5 percentage points to 72.7 percent. Although the Hispanic or Latino homeownership rate also increased, it inched up by only 0.3 percentage points to 46.6 percent.

The homeownership rate gains seen in 2017 were preceded by years of declines for all groups. From the 4^th quarter of 2004 to the 4th quarter of 2016, black households experienced the largest decline with a 7.3 percentage point drop to 42.4 percent, while the white homeownership rate declined by 3.9 percentage points to 72.2 percent, the “other” households rate declined by 3.4 percentage points to 56.4 percent, and the Hispanic homeownership rate by 2.5 percentage points to 46.3 percent.

Although homeownership rates increased across all groups in the fourth quarter of 2017, significant differences still exist, ranging from the high of nearly 73 percent among white households to the low of 43 percent among black households.

Tags: homeownership