Rural residents more likely to own homes than urban residents
By Christopher Mazur, U.S. Census Bureau
Dec 28, 2018
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If owning a home is the American dream, rural Americans are more likely to achieve it.

Rural areas have higher homeownership rates than urban areas: 81.1 percent compared to 59.8 percent.

Data from the 5-year American Community Survey shows that the same pattern holds in all four regions. The largest difference is in the Northeast where the homeownership rate is 83.8 percent in rural areas and 58.2 percent in urban areas.

Homeownership rates increase as the proportion of the population in rural areas increases. Rates are higher both in completely rural and mostly rural counties than in mostly urban counties.

Christopher Mazur is a survey statistician in the Housing Statistics Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau.