More than 40% of US homeowners don’t have mortgages — and that number is growing

A growing share of US homeowners are living without a mortgage, as aging baby boomers and long-term demographic shifts reshape the housing landscape.

According to a new analysis from ResiClub based on US Census Bureau data, 40.3% of owner-occupied homes in the country were mortgage-free in 2024, marking a record high and a modest uptick from 39.8% the year prior. 

The share has climbed steadily over the past decade, up from 32.8% in 2010, signaling that more Americans are aging into debt-free homeownership.

The increase, analysts say, reflects a simple truth about the country’s changing population: the US is getting older. 

Demographics have been noted as one of the main factors leading to an increase in mortgage-free home ownership.

Homeowners who are older are more likely to be mortgage-free

As Americans live longer and the sizable baby boomer generation enters its later years, the nation’s demographics have shifted older — and with that, the proportion of mortgage-free homeowners has climbed, since older Americans are more likely to have fully paid off their homes.

That aging curve now dominates the ownership profile. 

ResiClub found that 54% of the nation’s 35 million mortgage-free homeowners are age 65 or older, a group that represents just over a third of all US homeowners. Among that population, roughly 64% own their homes outright, compared with far lower rates among middle-aged and younger buyers still carrying loans.

The geography of mortgage-free ownership varies widely. Areas with lower property values and older residents tend to see the highest concentrations of fully paid-off homes, particularly across parts of the South and Midwest. Among the 200 largest US metro areas, McAllen, Texas (61.8%); Brownsville, Texas (57.8%); Beaumont, Texas (57.1%); Kingsport, Tennessee (56.2%); and Longview, Texas (55.8%) reported the greatest shares of homeowners without mortgages.

By contrast, higher-priced, fast-growing cities showed much lower rates. Washington, D.C. (26.4%); Provo, Utah (27.0%); Denver, Colorado (27.1%); Greeley, Colorado (27.2%); and Ogden, Utah (28.8%) had the smallest proportions of mortgage-free owners — places where both home prices and mortgage debt tend to remain elevated.

With tens of millions of Americans holding substantial equity in their homes, the financial industry is taking note. 

In the coming years, ResiClub anticipates a rise in equity-based products like reverse mortgages, as more older homeowners who’ve paid off their properties seek ways to access their home equity without putting their homes on the market, the report noted.

The trend underscores how the American dream of homeownership is evolving: less about buying, more about holding — and increasingly, about aging in place.