WASHINGTON, DC—As the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices beat analysts' consensus estimates, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday that home ownership in the first quarter continued its steady decline nationwide, reaching 63.7%. Excepting slight upticks in Q3 2011 and the last two quarters of 2013, the ownership rate has fallen each quarter since the start of 2010; Bloomberg Business reported Tuesday that Q1's figure was the lowest since 1993.

Census Bureau data show that homeownership in Q1 declined 110 basis points year over year and 30 bps since Q4 2014. That dovetails with data showing that the rental vacancy rate—including apartments as well as single-family homes—declined by 120 bps over the past 12 months, and now stands at 7.1%.

For rental housing by area, Q1 vacancies were highest outside metropolitan statistical areas at 9.0%, according to the Census Bureau. In principal cities, vacancies stood at 7.3% ,while in the suburbs it was 6.5%. The rental vacancy rates inside principal cities and in the suburbs were lower than a year earlier, while the change in vacancy outside MSAs was not statistically different.