- U.S. homeownership fell 0.1% in the second quarter of 2025, the first decline since 2016.
- Renter households rose 2.6%, with high home costs cited as a key factor.
- Redfin expert Chen Zhao said changing marriage and family demographics could also be having an impact.
SALT LAKE CITY — The number of homeowner households in the United States dropped for the first time in nearly 10 years.
What's being called a "marginal decline" is a 0.1% year over year dip in homeownership to an estimated 86.2 million households nationwide in the second quarter of 2025, according to a new analysis posted Wednesday by Redfin, a Seattle-based online brokerage.
While the size of the dip is minimal, it's the first decrease recorded since 2016.
At the same time, there's been a jump in the number of renter households across the country. The 2.6% increase to an estimated 46.4 million renter households nationwide is "one of the largest increases in recent years," Redfin said.
Not surprisingly, the high cost of homeownership was cited as a reason for the shift.
"America's homeowner population is no longer growing because rising home prices, high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty have made it increasingly difficult to own a home," Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economics research, said.
The country's changing demographics may also be having an impact, Zhao said, noting, "People are also getting married and starting families later, which means they're buying homes later — another factor that may be at play."
Despite finding fewer homeowner households in April, May and June than the same quarter in 2024 based on Census data, Redfin noted that during the same time period, the homeownership rate stayed relatively steady at 65%, as did the rate for renters, at 35%.
In 2024, the homeownership rate nationwide was 65.6% and the rate for renters was 34.4%.
For the Salt Lake area, Redfin's analysis found a lower homeownership rate than the rest of the country in the second quarter of 2025, 60.6%, along with a higher rate of renting, 39.4%. A previous study found buying a home in Salt Lake costs more than twice as much as renting.
Utah's capital city had the 15th lowest homeownership rate among the nation's 75 most populated metro areas analyzed by Redfin. Los Angeles and New York topped that list, with rates below 50%, while North Port, Florida, located near Sarasota, had the highest rate, 79.5%.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox wants more affordable housing built in the state, setting a goal of getting 35,000 new starter homes built by 2028. Efforts are underway to expand his program to include "starter condos" to make ownership possible for more Utahns.
