Home ownership rates stood at 66 percent in the fourth quarter, down from a 2004 high of 69.2 percent, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.
Not only is home ownership falling, prices continue their declines as well, with U.S. home prices falling 1.3 percent in November from October and 3.7 percent below 2010 levels, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index shows, according to USA Today.
While the market may be nearing a bottom, lasting recovery may still be a long way away.
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"Americans are less keen on homeownership knowing now that prices can fall," says Paul Dales, economist with Capital Economics, USA Today adds.
Other economists meanwhile feel prices are nowhere close to halting their declines, which would keep ownership rates low.
"The trend is down, and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand," says David Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor's index committee.
Other indicators out there point to some signs of a bottoming in the housing market.
Nationwide production of new single-family homes rose 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 470,000 units in December, according to Commerce Department figures.
The overall number of housing starts for that month fell 4.1 percent but mainly due to a slide in multifamily units, which tend to swing up and down by their very nature.
"Demand for new, single-family homes is finally starting to firm up in an increasing number of markets nationwide," Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), says in a recent statement.
"This emerging trend is allowing builders to put more crews back to work, and could be even stronger if not for the overly tight credit conditions that prevail for both builders and buyers, as well as the continuing foreclosure crisis and the challenges of obtaining accurate appraisal values on new homes."
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