Retreat from homeownership: A comparison of the generations and the states

Homeownership is a topic of widespread policy concern, and the 1990 census provides a unique opportunity to review trends of the 1980s for subareas of the nation and subgroups of the population. This paper addresses three main questions. First, in which states did the overall level of homeownership fare best during the 1980s, and in which did the level decline most? Second, did the level of homeownership fall where house values rose most steeply? Finally, in which states did the large baby-boom generation fare best, and in which did the largest generation gap open between the baby-boom generation and the elderly? In the nation, the downward trend in ownership was slight, marking the first decline since the 1930s. Declines under age 45 were much greater—6 percentage points—while elderly persons experienced a gain in homeownership of about 5 percentage points. For young people, homeownership fell the most in states where house values also declined.