Economics
The Share of Americans Who Are Mortgage-Free Is at an All-Time High
Almost 40% of US homeowners own their homes outright as of 2022—many of them baby boomers who refinanced when rates were low.
Anthony and Emily Stump, with Bo.
Photographer: Dominick Williams for Bloomberg BusinessweekThis article is for subscribers only.
There’s talk of a great divide in the US housing market, as new buyers get crushed by 8% mortgage rates while earlier ones cling gratefully to loans of less than 3%. Missing from this story is a third, even more fortunate group: the rapidly growing number of Americans who own their homes outright.
The share of US homes that are mortgage-free jumped 5 percentage points from 2012 to 2022, to a record just shy of 40%. More than half of these owners have reached retirement age. Freedom from mortgage debt gives them the option to age in place—or uproot to sunnier climes.