The homeownership rate was flat in the first quarter at 65.3%, according to the latest data from the Commerce Department.
Vacancy rates have remained nearly unchanged, at 6.8% for rental housing and 0.9% for homeowner housing—these are not much different than the 6.6 percent rental vacancy rate in Q4 of 2020. The homeownership vacancy rate was 0.2 percentage points lower YoY and 0.1 percentage points lower than Q4 2020.
Regionally, the rental vacancy rate was lowest in the West (4.9%). The rate in the Midwest (7.9%) was higher than the rate in the Northeast (6.8%) while the rate in the South (7.5%) was not statistically different from the rates in the Northeast and Midwest.
The rates in the Northeast and West were higher than their first quarter 2020 rates. The rate in the South was lower than the first quarter 2020 rate. The rate in the Midwest was not statistically different from the first quarter 2020 rate.
The homeowner vacancy rate was highest in the South (1.1%). The rate in the West (0.8%) was virtually the same as the rate in the Midwest (0.8%). The rate in the West was higher than the rate in the Northeast (0.6%), but the rate in the Midwest was not statistically different from the rate in the Northeast. The rates in the Northeast and South were lower than the first quarter 2020 rates, while the rates in the Midwest and West were not statically different from the first quarter 2020.
According to the commerce department, however, due to the coronavirus pandemic, data collection operations for the CPS/HVS were affected during the first quarter of 2021. They released the following statement:
“On March 20, 2020, the Census Bureau suspended in-person interviews, and this continued through June 2020. Beginning in July 2020, parts of the country began reopening for personal interviewing. Personal interviewing was allowed for 97% of sample cases in January 2021, 97% of sample cases in February, and 99% of sample cases in March. The Census Bureau continued to conduct the remaining CPS/HVS interviews by telephone and made efforts to collect telephone interviews for households and vacant units that would normally have been personal interviews.”
