Owner vs. Renter Occupied Housing Units
June 14,
2019 by Laurie Northington in General 
For many in pursuit of homeownership and those already there, the Great Recession forced the American tradition of owning a home aside and renting became the viable alternative. Now safely out of the recession, many renters are choosing to stay put or better yet, keep the freedom to move. This is the fourth factoid in a series of five factoids, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey, to explore the changing profiles of owners and renters.
As would be expected, families contribute to the higher average number of occupants in owner-occupied households, but the difference is not significant compared to renter units. Owner-occupied units in 2017 had an average household size of 2.72 persons, while renters had a household size of 2.51. As more single people have turned to renting, the majority of homeownership is narrowing to mainly families.
Renter households have a greater tendency to contain only one occupant compared to owner-occupied units, 37.1 percent of renters versus 22.7 percent of owners. But over 35 percent of both renter and owner owned units have three or more occupants.
One of the biggest differences in renter and owner households is that owner-owned residences are primarily married couple families, 60.1 percent compared to 27 percent of renter housing. Likewise, almost half (48.2 percent) of renter households are nonfamily and unrelated individuals compared to only 26.8 percent of owner residences.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 American Community Survey 1-year estimates