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Richard Hardy
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A large spike in home ownership in the U.S. in 2020: why?

Noah Smith's blog post "Yes, most Americans own capital" states

A majority of American households — consistently a little less than 2/3 — are homeowners:

and follows that up with a figure:

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I find the year 2020 rather curious. There is a sharp, large jump in home ownership from just above 65% to just under 68%. And there is an equally large drop right afterwards. Nothing of the sort has been observed since mid 1960s (this is how far into the past the graph goes).

How could this be explained? Did a significant fraction of Americans rush and buy (first) homes just when the pandemic hit, and then the same or another fraction decided to sell and rent instead of owning? Or is there another reason for the spike?

Richard Hardy
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