The U.S. homeownership rate remained unchanged from the previous quarter at 65.4% in the first quarter of 2022, while the homeowner vacancy rate decreased to a record low, according to the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey. According to the NAHB, recent entries in the survey no longer include COVID-induced data collection restrictions and, in the short-term, some year-over-year comparisons will be skewed.

It is worthwhile to look at the homeownership rates among all age groups. The homeownership rates for households under 35 was 38.8% in the first quarter of 2022, and 62.3% for households led by 35-44 years old, 69.4% for 45-54 age groups, 75% for 55-64 age groups and 78.6% for households ages 65 years and over.

Total housing inventory was unaffected by the data collection changes during the COVID-19 pandemic period, when the estimates of homeownership rates, vacancy rates, and the components of housing inventory were affected. The housing stock-based HVS revealed that the count of total households increased to 127.5 million in the first quarter of 2022 from 125.9 million a year ago.