- Maine has the highest home ownership rate of the U.S. at 33%
- West Virginia and Vermont are second and third
- California on the contrary has the lowest home ownership rate of the country at 18%
Maine is the state with the highest home ownership in the United States, a new study revealed.
The study, conducted by Malibu real estate agents, analyzed Census data on housing units, owner occupied units and the total population of each state to discover which of the 50 states plus have the highest and the lowest home ownership rate.
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In first place comes Maine, where the number of owner-occupied housing units totals 437,858.38, which then compared to the total population of 1,338,404 results in a home ownership rate of 32.71%.
Second and third on the list are West Virginia and Vermont, which have almost the same home ownership rate - West Virginia at 32.15% and Vermont at 32.11%.
This is despite the large disparity in population the two states register: in fact, West Virginia’s population is 1,805,832 and the number of owner-occupied housing units is 580,539; while in Vermont the population amounts to 626,299 and the number of owner-occupied housing units is 201,094, more than half the numbers of the former.
Further down on the list Wyoming and Missouri are fourth and fifth, again with very close ownership rates, respectively 30.30% and 30.29%.
Top Five US States With The Highest Home Ownership Rate
| State | Population | Total Housing Units | Total Occupied Units | Number of Owner-Occupied Housing Units | Rate of Own Home Ownership | |
| 1 | Maine | 1,338,404 | 745,334 | 576,888.52 | 437,858.38 | 32.71% |
| 2 | West Virginia | 1,805,832 | 858,481 | 734,859.74 | 580,539.19 | 32.15% |
| 3 | Vermont | 626,299 | 336,779 | 272,117.43 | 201,094.78 | 32.11% |
| 4 | Wyoming | 577,737 | 274,371 | 242,818.34 | 175,072.02 | 30.30% |
| 5 | Missouri | 6,126,452 | 2,807,604 | 2,549,304.43 | 1,855,893.63 | 30.29% |
On the other side of the list there’s the American states with the lowest home ownership rate, first of which there’s California. In fact, out of 39,557,045 people, the number of owner-occupied housing units is only 7,260,000, which corresponds to 18.35%.
Second and third on the list, with similar values, are Hawaii which registers a home ownership rate of 19.36% and New York, which rate is 20.52%.
Top Five US States With The Lowest Home Ownership Rate
| State | Population | Total Housing Units | Total Occupied Units | Number of Owner-Occupied Housing Units | Rate of Own Home Ownership | |
| 1 | California | 39,557,045 | 14,512,281 | 13,394,835.36 | 7,260,000.77 | 18.35% |
| 2 | Hawaii | 1,420,491 | 564,908 | 473,392.90 | 275,041.28 | 19.36% |
| 3 | New York | 19,542,209 | 8,531,063 | 7,481,742.25 | 4,010,213.85 | 20.52% |
| 4 | Alaska | 737,438 | 327,890 | 269,197.69 | 172,286.52 | 23.36% |
| 5 | Nevada | 3.034.392 | 1,305,509 | 1,184,096.66 | 716,378,48 | 23,61% |
A spokesperson for Malibu real estate agents commented on the findings: “It’s very interesting how among the states with the highest rate and those with the lowest rate, the values are very similar.
This however cannot be said about the values at the two poles of the list, as Maine on one side and California on the other have a drastic gap between them, also due to the population of California, as well as the demographics of the state, which makes it more complicated for a large majority of the population to own a home.”
