The data that everyone uses to track homeownership is provided by the U.S. 人口普查局, which publishes quarterly stats on ownership rates dating back to 1965. 正如你在下面的图表中看到的那样，在1965年的62.9%和1994年的63.8%之间，这一比率保持了非常稳定。 For the purposes of this discussion, I have highlighted three presidential terms: two under President Clinton and President George W. Bush’s first term.

The “boom times” for housing essentially started after the election of President Clinton, who went to remarkable lengths to encourage homeownership. Readers may remember the 1994年全国住房所有权战略 when the President directed HUD to come up with a viable plan to increase homeownership. 这招奏效了； 在克林顿执政期间，住房拥有率从64.2%上升到67.1%。

During his first term, President Bush continued the practice of encouraging homeownership, as it dovetailed with his 所有者社会 goals. His, and President Clinton’s efforts, led to the highest home ownership rates on record, peaking at just over 69% (about 5% higher than record-keeping averages). But as we all know now, it also led to the burst of the biggest housing bubble in our nation’s history. 是的，房屋拥有率暴涨，但市场被人为夸大，不可持续。 自那以后，住房自有率降至63.7%，但仅略低于64.3%的长期平均水平。 并不像有些人说的那样是灾难性的。

也就是说，我确实认为利率可能会进一步下降。 现在，在你开始指责千禧一代之前，停下来，因为他们不是领导这场指控的人。 （顺便说一句，我确实为这群人感到难过，因为他们似乎正在承受目前所有经济困境的冲击。） 从1994年到今天，如果悦博体育按年龄划分房屋拥有率，35岁以下的房主减少了2.5%。 A palpable drop, but slight when compared to 35-44 year olds who have seen their numbers drop by 6% – from 64.4% to 58.4%. 为什么? 因为这个群体在房地产市场崩溃后受到的打击最大，许多人失去了房屋止赎权。

Circling back to Millennials, it’s true that this group is more subdued relative to homeownership – and there’s good reason for it. 与郊区相比，千禧一代在已婚夫妇中所占比例较小，在城市居民中所占比例更高。 但由于中年家庭正在考虑重新拥有自己的住房，他们的增长不足可能会被抵消。 According to RealtyTrac, while Millennials have gotten a lot of attention lately as the generation whose below-normal homeownership rates are changing the landscape of the U.S. real estate market, the boomerang buyers — who are primarily Generation Xers or Baby Boomers — represent a massive wave of potential pent-up demand that could shape the housing market in the short term even more dramatically.

Data from Transunion supports this theory, suggesting that there are about 700,000 consumers who will become eligible to re-enter the housing market in 2015, and up to an additional 2.2 million potential buyers will requalify over the next five years. It’s likely that these so called “boomerang buyers” will become homeowners again, which will do its part to offset the Millennial drop, and raise the homeownership rate back up to its historic averages.

那么，房屋拥有率下降了吗？ Yes, but as the data and this analysis show, taking a simple “peak-to-trough” view of homeownership figures does not necessarily provide accurate results. 不管有多少危言耸听的人不这么说。