New Census data show just 48.5 percent of Los Angeles and Orange County households are living in residences they own—the lowest rate among 75 major national metropolitan areas. Per the O.C. Register, the Inland Empire is home to 65.8 percent of households who are owners—the region’s highest rate since 2009 but still 29th lowest nationally.
“The nature of this crisis made our homes more important to us than ever before,” said Jordan Levine, chief economist at the California Association of Realtors, told the O.C. Register. “The uptick in flexibility due to remote working allowed folks to purchase homes a little farther away from their offices than they may have considered in the past, which helped them find a home in an area that may have been more affordable than they would have considered when they had to drive into the office every day.”
When it comes to state data, California’s ownership rate was 55.9 percent in 2020 (a 1.1 percentage point improvement from 2019), third-lowest among the states. Best was West Virginia at 77.8 percent, while Washington D.C. came in last with 42.5 percent.