For two decades, the U.S. homeownership rate has been treated as a scoreboard of generational progress—even as the topline number has barely moved and hides a widening age-based split beneath it. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis suggests the story may actually be one of reversal, not stasis—with a significant split along generational, even intra-generational lines.
The Minneapolis Fed’s new measure, called the homeowners-to-population ratio, or HPOP, counts individual adults rather than housing units. There’s quite a difference from the traditional owner-occupancy rate: the former puts national homeownership at 65%, but HPOP finds the real figure is closer to 53%. For adults under age 35, the gap is even more severe. The standard rate says 37% of under-35 households owned their home in 2024; HPOP puts the true number at just 22%.
