The latest homeownership rate rose to 65.7% in the last quarter of 2025, according to the Census’s Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS). While this was a modest quarterly increase, the broader picture continues to reflect significant affordability challenges. With mortgage interest rates remaining elevated, and housing supply still tight, housing affordability is at a multidecade low.
Compared to the peak of 69.2% in 2004, the homeownership rate is currently 3.5 percentage points lower and remains below the 25-year average rate of 66.3%. It is also important to note that the fourth quarter’s data comes with a higher level of uncertainty. Due to the government shutdown, the Census only collected data for the last two months of 2025.
Compared to the previous year, homeownership rates increased in only two age groups. Among younger households, the homeownership rate for those under 35 increased 1.6 percentage points to 37.9% in the last quarter of 2025. This age group is particularly sensitive to mortgage rates and the inventory of entry-level homes. Homeownership rates for householders ages 55-64 inched up by 0.4 percentage points over the same time. In contrast, several middle-aged and older groups saw declines. Householders ages 45-54 experienced the largest drop, declining 1.5 percentage points from 71.0% to 69.5%. The 35-44 age group saw a 0.5 percentage point decrease, decreasing from 61.4% to 60.9%. Homeownership rates for householders aged 65 years and over declined 0.5 percentage points from a year ago.
The national rental vacancy rate inched up to 7.2% for the fourth quarter of 2025, on a steadily increasing trend since 2023. Meanwhile, the homeowner vacancy rate stayed at 1.2%. The upticks in both homeowner and rental vacancy rate signal an increase in the existing home supply.
The housing stock-based HVS revealed that the number of total households increased to 133.7 million in the last quarter of 2025 from 132.2 million a year ago. This increase was driven by both owner and renter household growth. The number of renter households rose by 0.46 million, while owner-occupied households increased by around 1 million over the same period.
