Less Marriage Means Less Homeownership

Richard Green, director of the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, writes that the U.S. homeownership rate could fall if more people continue to remain single. He cites a recent Bowling Green study, which shows that the marriage rate has dropped by 60 percent since 1970. Currently, just under 50 percent of U.S. households are married couple households. “As recently as 1960,” Green notes, “three-quarters of American households were married couple households.” Meanwhile, the current ownership rate among married couples is 81 percent and 51 percent among non-marrieds. “If the marriage rate drops by another five percentage points,” Green warns, “and the ownership rate remains the same for married couples and non-marrieds, the ownership rate will drop by another 1.5 percentage points.” In light of the numbers over the past 40 or so years, he marvels that homeownership has basically retained its same level — not counting the up and down rates of the 2000s, of course. | Read More