The U.S. real estate market took off in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The homeownership rate – or share of owner-occupied housing – jumped 2.6 percentage points between the first and second quarters of 2020, by far the biggest increase on record. At the end of 2020, there were 2.1 million more homeowners in the United States than there were a year earlier.
The surge in home sales has been fueled by several factors, including historically low mortgage rates and, as some experts speculate, the pandemic, which has caused many Americans to reassess where and how they live. Here’s a look at the mortgage rate in America every year since 1972.
Nationally, the homeownership rate stands at 64.4%, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. However, this rate varies widely across the country, from state to state, and from community to community.
Using census data, 24/7 Wall St. identified the zip code of each state with the highest homeownership rate. Postal codes are classified according to the share of owner-occupied dwellings.
Among the locations on this list, homeownership rates range from 88% to 100% and are higher than the corresponding state homeownership rate in all cases.
In most ZIP codes on this list, median household incomes are higher than they are statewide. Higher incomes can help make home ownership more affordable for a larger portion of the population and offset the higher than average housing costs that are common in many places on this list. Here’s a look at the 20 cities where the middle class can no longer afford housing.
Click here to see the zip code with the highest homeownership rate in each state
Click here to read our detailed methodology