June is Homeownership month, a time to not only celebrate homeownership but also encourage and educate prospective homebuyers on its benefits. Some of those benefits include financial ones, such as predictable housing payments, building equity, and tax advantages. This financial security can lead to people staying in their homes longer, which contributes to their local economies. Despite the advantages of homeownership, buyers have been facing a wave of issues in achieving it with stubbornly high mortgage rates, elevated home prices, and the increased costs of everyday goods. As we jump into Homeownership Month, let’s explore the trends taking place in Virginia and how they have changed over the years.

Homeownership is growing in the state

At 70.5%, Virginia continued to outpace the national homeownership rate, which was 65.6% in 2024. Nationally, Virginia has the 19^th highest homeownership rate, moving up from 24^th last year. The homeownership rate this year is up 1.4 percentage points from last year and is 2.4 percentage points higher than it was a decade ago. Across metro areas in the state, smaller markets such as Winchester (73.5%) and Lynchburg (71.9%) had higher owner occupancy levels compared to larger areas like Virginia Beach (63.3% and Northern Virginia (63.5%). At the county level, Powhatan (93.1%) and New Kent County (92.1%) had the highest homeownership rates in the state while Petersburg (38.3%) and Emporia (38.4%) had the lowest rates.

The racial homeownership gap continues to expand

Homeownership is a key way for people to build wealth, but the gap between white and minority households remains vast both at the national and the state level. In Virginia, owner occupancy levels have grown 3.5 percentage points for White households since 2013 with the current rate at 74.6% in 2023. This is significantly higher than the rates for Black (49.6%), Latino (53.7%), and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (47.4%) owner occupied households. People of color have faced many obstacles to homeownership beginning with redlining in the 1930’s to widening pay gaps with Black and Latino workers  earning less than their White counterparts. Despite these challenges, there have been some positive gains in homeownership in Virginia among minority groups. Asian households have the second highest homeownership rate in the state at 71.1% and ownership levels for Latino households went up 10.2 percentage points from 2013 to 2023.

Growth slows for younger households, rises for older households

In Virginia, younger homebuyers, specifically those 25-34 years old, have lower owner occupancy levels compared to older households. The number of owner-occupied households in this age range was 42.9% in 2023, up from 42.1% the previous year. Although the number of younger households has increased, ongoing affordability issues have made buying and owning a home challenging for this demographic. For householders aged 45 to 59 years, there has also been a shift with owner-occupancy rates going from 73.6% to 72.1% in 2023, dropping by 1.5 percentage points. Older households have the highest ownership rates in the state, with a rate of 82.9% for those ages 75 to 84 years old. The biggest jump in owner-occupancy rates was for households 65 to 74 years old with a 1.5 percentage point increase from 2022 to 2023.

The housing market in Virginia has recently seen an uptick in the number of listings on the market, a positive sign for home buyers who just a few years ago faced increased competition due to low inventory. This, along with the growth in homeownership, is encouraging but there is still more work to be done with younger buyers and those of color experiencing affordability challenges. We must continue to help these groups and anyone else striving towards homeownership, not only because it benefits them but can improve the community overall.

For more information on housing, demographic, and economic trends in Virginia, be sure to check out Virginia REALTORS^® other Economic Insights blogs.