With Housing, Millennials Have Much to Complain About
The standard metrics obscure just how unlikely it has become for young adults to own a home in the US.
The housing market isn’t working for many people.
Photographer: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
Since taking a big leap upward in the 1940s and 1950s, the homeownership rate in the US has been remarkably steady since the 1960s, with close to two-thirds of households owning their homes.
Yes, there was an increase during the 2000s housing boom and a decrease during the bust, but a different Census Bureau survey found that the homeownership rate in the second quarter of this year was, at 65.9%, about where it was in the late 1990s and late 1970s. Since the 1970s, inflation-adjusted house prices (measured using the FHFA House Price Index and the Consumer Price Index) have almost doubled, yet homeownership has not declined.