Census: State ranks in top half of U.S. in home ownership
For a fifth consecutive year, Connecticut entered January with a higher percentage of residents owning their homes, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday. At the end of 2023, Connecticut’s estimated 68.9 percent home ownership rate ranked 25th nationally.
The gains came despite the highest mortgage rates the newest generation of home buyers have ever seen, which combined with limited numbers of new listings convinced some would-be home owners to wait another year for their first purchase, despite the higher rents they are having to pay. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve signaled a willingness to reduce interest rates this year, which could help more renters consider a home purchase, something economists see as a pillar to building equity from income.
It was the first time since 2015 that Connecticut closed out the year ranked in the top half of states for home ownership. Dating back to 2006, the Census Bureau recorded the highest home ownership rate in the first three months of 2010, when an estimated 72.3 percent of residents
held the deeds to their homes.
“Home ownership is a huge goal, in terms of trying to make sure the first-time home buyers have access to the availability of down-payment assistance, but also an affordable
first mortgage,” said Nandini Natarajan, CEO of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, speaking Monday in Hartford as part of an affordable housing roundtable series by the Connecticut General Assembly carried by CT-N.
Over the last 18 months, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority has closed just over 3,000 loans under a new “Time To Own” down payment assistance program, with the state kicking another $35 million to the program in December.
Time To Own was created by the state in 2022 to help borrowers having difficulties getting mortgages in the open market due to limited income or other factors. The average Time To Own award is nearly $30,700, according to the latest data CHFA provided CT Insider. Time To Own loans are forgiven on a schedule of 10 percent of the principal every year for 10 years. The median borrower’s annual income is just above $68,500.
Of more than 40,000 mortgages that lenders extended in 2022 to Connecticut borrowers for the purchase of homes as primary residences, including duplexes and tripledeckers, the median loan amount was $285,000, according to Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council data reviewed by CT Insider. That does not include thousands more in which a portion of a residential building is also a commercial establishment.
The median interest rate on that