New Fed research suggests far fewer Americans own homes than widely believed - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reports that new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis suggests U.S. homeownership may be substantially lower than the figure most often cited in public discussions. The study estimates that about 53% of U.S. adults own a home, compared with the roughly 65% homeownership rate commonly associated with Census Bureau data.

The difference stems from what is being measured. The Census Bureau’s traditional rate counts the share of occupied housing units where the owner lives. The Minneapolis Fed’s measure, called the homeowners-to-population ratio, or HPOP, instead looks at the share of adults who personally own a home. CBS notes that an adult child living with parents who own the house would be counted within an owner-occupied household under the Census measure, even though that adult does not own property.

According to CBS, Minneapolis Fed researchers found that about 14% of U.S. adults live in owner-occupied homes without owning them. Erik Hembre, a senior economist at the Minneapolis Fed and co-author of the report, told CBS the distinction matters because the widely cited rate can be interpreted as showing that about two-thirds of adults are homeowners, which the new measure says is not accurate.

The findings matter for housing policy and affordability debates. CBS reports that HPOP is lower than the traditional owner-occupancy rate in every state, with larger gaps in expensive markets. The article cites California, where HPOP is 41.2% compared with a 55.9% owner-occupancy rate, and New York, where 43.3% of adults own homes versus 54.3% living in owner-occupied housing.