Every month we see all kinds of government statistics about the housing market and home sales, and sometimes, the most important news gets lost in the statistical mumbo-jumbo. Case-in-point: An unexpected trend emerged from U.S. Census Bureau data released in early March — Americans want to be homeowners again.
The numbers showed that the country’s Home Ownership Rate had hit its highest level in five years. After a steady trend of renting over purchasing, the situation has reversed. The number of owner households showed the biggest jump last year since 2004 — overall, the country added 1.7 million owner households in 2018 while losing 167,000 renter households.
This trend has the potential to have a huge impact on many housing-related products, particularly lighting. Homeowners tend to invest in better, more permanent lighting products, like hard-wired chandeliers and fixtures, as opposed to renters who often will buy less expensive portable lighting.
“Buyers are really expressing their desire for the American dream, albeit surely but slowly,” says real estate data firm CoreLogic's deputy chief economist Ralph McLaughlin to The Wall Street Journal. “That is a very important shift in the U.S. housing market that could last for five, 10, 15 years.”
More importantly, the increase in home ownership was mostly seen in the older cohort of Millennials, ages 35-44. These are the consumers who observers said were not interested in owning many of the things their parents did, including homes, cars, clothing and home furnishings. This news offers encouragement to home suppliers and retailers who have worried that many of their products were no longer suited for this emerging demographic.
Instead, with housing prices and mortgage rates both dipping recently, it may have been much more about economics than sociology. Said another economist in The Wall Street Journal, “We’re getting where more young households are able to afford a home and move into ownership.”