, Columnist
Millennials Are Out of the Basement and Into Buying Homes
Young adults are getting jobs, forming households and having kids. It all adds up.
On the way back.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
There are two themes I find endlessly fascinating about real estate. One is its enormous role in the financial crisis.1517593539069 The other is the steep decline in homeownership after the crisis. Let’s take a closer look at some of the data, to see if there are any insights to be gleaned.
Homeownership in the United States peaked in 2004, when 69.2 percent of all U.S. households owned their dwellings. The rate bottomed at 62.9 percent in the second quarter of 2016, a level not seen since 1965. But here what really interesting: the rate has since risen sharply to 64.2 percent.