The name "home-ownership rate" can be misleading. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is the percentage of homes that are occupied by the owner. It is not the percentage of adults that own their own home. This latter percentage will be significantly lower than the home-ownership rate. Many households that are owner-occupied contain adult relatives (often young adults, descendants of the owner) who do not own their own home. Single building multi-bedroom rental units can contain more than one adult, all of whom do not own a home.
The term "home-ownership rate" can also be misleading because it includes households that owe on a mortgage. Which means that they do not fully own the equity in their own home, which they are said to "own". According to ATTOM Data Research, only "34 percent of all American homeowners have 100 percent equity in their properties — they’ve either paid off their entire mortgage debt or they never had a mortgage".[10]
It’s apparently higher. Again, very surprised. I’m not close with anyone who outright owns their home. Guess there’s a big class divide there, but still.
Edit: the original source is from 2017, though, so it was pre-Covid, which means it was prior to the real estate consolidation that happened during that time.
it is the percentage of homes that are occupied by the owner. It is not the percentage of adults that own their own home.
So you could have 3 homes, 2 is occupied by a person/couple who own the home, one is occupied by 5 independent adults who have to split rent 5 ways to survive. For those 3 homes you'd get a home ownership rate of 67%.
Wikipedia says:
It’s apparently higher. Again, very surprised. I’m not close with anyone who outright owns their home. Guess there’s a big class divide there, but still.
Edit: the original source is from 2017, though, so it was pre-Covid, which means it was prior to the real estate consolidation that happened during that time.
Also, 34% of homeowners is not 34% of people. It's 34% of people who have a mortgage. So more like 10%
So you could have 3 homes, 2 is occupied by a person/couple who own the home, one is occupied by 5 independent adults who have to split rent 5 ways to survive. For those 3 homes you'd get a home ownership rate of 67%.