Homeowership in US

The American Housing Survey(AHS, formerly Annual Housing Survey) is largest, regular national housing sample survey in the United States. The U.S Census Bureau conducts the AHS to obtain up to date housing and Urban Development(HUD).

There were an estimated 127.3 million housing units in the United States in the first quarter 2007. Approximately 109.7 million housing units were occupied: 75.0 million by owners and 34.7 million by renters. The number of total housing units, total occupied housing units and total vacant housing units (17.6 million) were all higher than their respective estimates in first quarter 2006. Of the 1.9 million increase in total housing units, 0.4 million was for occupied units and 1.5 million was for vacant units. Neither the number of owner-occupied units nor the number of renter-occupied units was statistically different from its corresponding estimate a year ago. Of the 17.6 million vacant housing units, 13.4 million were for year-round use and 4.2 million were seasonal. Approximately 4.0 million of the year-round vacant units were for rent, 2.2 million were for sale only, and the remaining 7.3 million units were vacant for a variety of other reasons.

Homeownership rate (68.4 percent) for the current quarter was not statistically different from
the first quarter 2006 rate (68.5 percent), but it was lower than the rate last quarter (68.9 percent).
The homeownership rate by region was highest in the Midwest (72.2 percent) during the first
quarter 2007. The South (70.6 percent) was next, while the Northeast (64.8 percent) and the West
(63.6 percent) were lowest, although the 64.8 percent and 63.6 percent were not statistically different
from each other. When compared with first quarter 2006, the homeownership rates for each region were
not statistically different from their respective rates last year