The home-ownership rate in the United States is the percentage of homes that are owned by their occupants. In 2009, it remained similar to that in some other post-industrial nations with 67.4% of all occupied housing units being occupied by the unit's owner. Home ownership rates vary depending on demographic characteristics of households such as ethnicity, race, type of household as well as location and type of settlement. In 2018, home-ownership dropped to a lower rate than it was in 1994, with a rate of 64.2%. Since 1960, the home-ownership rate in the United States has remained relatively stable. It has decreased 1.0% since 1960, when 65.2% of American households owned their own home. Additionally, homeowner equity has fallen steadily since World War II and is now less than 50% of the value of homes on average. Home-ownership was most common in rural areas and suburbs, with three quarters of suburban households being homeowners. Among the country's regions, the Midwestern United States had the highest home-ownership rate and the Western United States had the lowest. Recent research has examined the decline in home-ownership rates among households with "heads" aged 25 to 44 years. The rates fell substantially between 1980 and 2000, and recovered only partially during the United States housing bubble of the early 2000s. This research indicates that a trend toward marrying later and the increase in household earnings risk that occurred after 1980 account for a large share of the decline in young home-ownership. In general, homeowners in the United States also tend to have higher incomes. Households residing in their own home were more likely to be families (as opposed to individuals) than were their tenant counterparts. Among racial demographics, White Americans had the country's highest home-ownership rate, while African Americans had the lowest home-ownership rate. One study shows that home-ownership rates appear correlated with higher school attainment. The name "home-ownership rate" can be misleading. As defined by the US Census Bureau, it is the percentage of homes that are occupied by the owner. It is not the percentage of adults that own their own home. This latter percentage will be significantly lower than the home-ownership rate. Many households that are owner-occupied contain adult relatives (often young adults, descendants of the owner) who do not own their own home. Single building multi-bedroom rental units can contain more than one adult, all of whom do not own a home. The term "home-ownership rate" can also be misleading because it includes households that owe on a mortgage. Which means that they do not fully own the equity in their own home, which they are said to "own". According to ATTOM Data Research, only "34 percent of all American homeowners have 100 percent equity in their properties — they’ve either paid off their entire mortgage debt or they never had a mortgage". According to the Financial Post the cost of the average U.S. house in 2016 was US$187,000. (en)