Painful Ways Elders Undergo Towards Homeownership Right Now

The State of the Nation’s Housing of 2020 highlights how households age 65 and over is increasing faster than any other age group. It also reports the bigger challenges they face in home owning. 

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) who reported the data, found the number of households aged 65 and over increased at an annual rate of nearly ONE MILLION EACH YEAR from 2014 to 2019. The demographic’s percentage share increased from 24% to 26%. 

This means that over the next decade, the number of people at the age of 75 is expected to grow from 23 million to 34 million. This would be an increase of 48 percent. On the other hand, households under the age of 45 only grew a total of one million over the same period.

Role in the Housing Market

This older demographic has also made its part in shaping both homeownership and rental markets. Among the total homeownership in 2019, 78 percent were older households. The number of older homeowners raised by more than 2.5 million between 2016 and 2019.

Meanwhile, roughly two-thirds of the rental housing growth from 2004 to 2019 was due to adults ages 55 and over. Right now, they constitute more than 13.2 million, or 3 percent of all renter households.

The report also found that many older households are not enjoying the benefits of homeownership equally.

The Challenges

Jennifer Molinsky, JCHS Senior Research Associate shared that racial/ethnic disparities in homeownership rates persist among older households.

She added that “Over the last decade, the homeownership gap between Caucasian and African American older households has widened, climbing from 16 percentage points in 2009 to over 19 percentage points in 2016. The Caucasian-Hispanic ownership gap is nearly as large and has not changed substantially over the decade. The gap between Caucasian and Asian older adults has narrowed somewhat since 2009 but still exceeds 13 percentage points.