The U.S. homeownership rate edged up slightly in the third quarter of 2025 as mortgage rates gradually eased, but remained below last year’s pace because of ongoing affordability pressures.
Between July and September, 65.3% of Americans owned homes, up from 65% in Q2 but down from 65.6% compared to a year ago, according to the latest Housing Vacancy Survey released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Persistent affordability challenges and a shortage of reasonably priced homes have kept the rate from rising more meaningfully, though recent inventory gains, softer prices, and easing mortgage rates appear to be helping some previously sidelined households enter the market,” says Realtor.com® Senior Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones.
Economists at Realtor.com predict in their 2026 Housing Forecast that the national homeownership rate will fall to 64.8%, down from the full-year 2025 estimate of 65.1%.
Looking at the demographic breakdown, three age groups saw homeownership levels inch up year over year. The rate for adults under 35 years old rose by 0.5 percentage points, to 37.5%, while those aged 45 to 54 gained 0.3 percentage points, reaching 70% in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Gen X buyers were virtually flat year over year, with their homeownership rate ticking up by just 0.1 percentage points, to 76%.
Both millennials and baby boomers experienced setbacks in Q3, with their rates dropping 1.2 percentage points each compared to last year, down to 61.1% and 77.9%, respectively.
Notably, while older households, which typically have more equity and assets than their younger counterparts, continued to lead in homeownership, their rate dipped from 78.6% in the second quarter.
Black homeownership continues to lag
For homeownership by race, the latest data from the Census Bureau show that Whites maintained the highest rate, at 74%, followed by Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders, at 61.8%.
Hispanic homeownership remained flat both quarter over quarter and year over year, at 48.8%, while Black Americans once again recorded the lowest level of homeownership, at just 45.7%—same as a year ago but slightly up from Q2 2025.
The geography of American homeownership has changed little compared to earlier this year: The relatively affordable Midwest held onto the lead, boasting the nation’s highest rate of 68.9%, followed by the inventory-rich South (67.2%).
Homeownership rates in the pricey and undersupplied Northeast continued lagging, coming in at 62.5% in the third quarter, but it was the West, where many major housing markets have been slowing down, recorded the lowest rate of 60.7%—same as last quarter and down 0.4 percentage points year over year.
Homeowner and rental vacancies climb
The third quarter of 2025 saw the national vacancy rate for homeowners reach 1.2%, up from 1% a year ago, according to the Census report.
Echoing last quarter’s results, just under 90% of the housing units in the U.S. were occupied and roughly 10% stood empty. Owner-occupied homes made up over 58% of all inventory, while renter-occupied dwellings accounted for approximately 31% in Q3.
From July through September, the median asking sales price for vacant for-sale units was $365,800, up more than 5% from the second quarter of this year.
Regionally, the homeowner vacancy rate in the South was 1.4%, surpassing the rates in the West (1.2%), the Northeast (1%), and the Midwest (0.9%).
During the same time, America’s rental vacancy rate climbed to 7.1%, which was just 0.1 percentage points higher compared to the third quarter of 2024.
The median asking rent was $1,534, up from $1,494 last quarter.
“Climbing vacancy rates coupled with climbing homeownership reflect the rebalancing housing market, which has seen more for-sale homes, and softening price pressure in recent months,” says Jones.
The South, where construction has been booming in the post-pandemic era, stood out for having the nation’s highest rental vacancy rate exceeding 9%.
On the other hand, the Northeast, where new builds remain scarce, had the fewest unoccupied rental units, accounting for just 5% of the stock.