All glossary terms

Homeownership Rate

Definition

The homeownership rate is the percentage of occupied housing units that are lived in by their owners rather than renters. It comes from the Census American Community Survey and describes the tenure mix of a community.

Formula

Owner-occupied units / total occupied units × 100

How to interpret it

Higher homeownership rates often correlate with more stable, less transient neighborhoods, while lower rates indicate rental-heavy markets that can offer more investor opportunity. Read it alongside income and price-to-income to understand whether ownership reflects affordability or is being priced out.

See homeownership rate for any state, metro, county, or ZIP code in the Reatlas Market Explorer.

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Related terms

Source: Reatlas analysis of U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS), Realtor.com, and Zillow market data.