U.S. Census Bureau Reports Home Ownership Rate in Q2 2021 at 65.4%

On Tuesday (7-27-21) the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of Bureau’s Q2 2021 Housing Vacancy Survey. According to the survey, the national vacancy rates in Q2 of 2021 was 6.2% for rental housing and 0.9% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate was 0.5% points higher than the rate in Q2 2020 (5.7%) and -0.6% points lower than the rate in Q1 2021 (6.8%). The homeowner vacancy rate of 0.9% was virtually the same as the rate in Q2 2020 (0.9%) and virtually the same as the rate in Q1 2021 (0.9%). The homeownership rate of 65.4% was -2.5 % points lower than the rate in Q2 2020 (67.9%) and not statistically different from the rate in Q1 2021 (65.6%). The rental vacancy rate outside MSAs (6.9%) was higher than the rate in the suburbs (5.4%). The rate in principal cities (6.7%) was also higher than the rate in the suburbs. The rate in principal cities was not statistically different from the rate outside MSAs. The rate in principal cities was higher than Q2 2020 rate, the rate outside MSAs was lower than the Q2 2020 rate, but the rate in the suburbs was not statistically different from the Q2 2020 rate. The homeowner vacancy rate in principal cities (1.1%) was higher than the rate in the suburbs (0.8%) but not statistically different from the rate outside MSAs (0.9%). The rate outside MSAs was not statistically different from the rate in the suburbs. The rates in all areas were not statistically different from the Q2 2020 rates.