NAHB Reveals Counties with Highest Homeownership Rates

Washington, DC, July 31, 2023-While U.S. homeownership rates have been rising since 2015 and received an extra boost during the post-pandemic housing boom, they remain below the levels reached during the housing boom of the mid-2000s, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports.

And NAHB’s analysis of the 2021 five-year American Community Survey county-level data reveals substantial variation in homeownership rates across U.S. counties, ranging from less than 25% in urban counties of New York to over 90% in exurban counties of Denver and in the South.

Factors impacting homeownership rates include both geography and population density, with high-cost-of-living coastal areas and urban high-density counties registering some of the lowest homeownership rates.

Counties on the top ten list register homeownership rates in excess of 90%. While these counties are spread throughout the country, the common feature is that they are all outlying, lower-density counties.

The list includes four counties in the Mountain division: two in the Denver metro area-Elbert County (92.6%) and Park County (91.1%)-as well as Storey County, Nevada (96.5%) and Meagher County, Montana (92.1%). Out of the remaining six highest homeownership rate counties, five are in the South: Terrel County, Texas; Cameron Parish, Louisiana; Powhatan County, Virginia; Washington County, Alabama; and Doddridge County, West Virginia.