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The data paint a picture of declining homeownership rates for younger and middle-aged Americans, with sustained ownership rates among older adults.

By Jane Hodges, contributor

Despite a historic downturn in housing, the ranks of homeowners grew between the second and third quarter.

The American homeownership rate rose slightly to 66.3 during third quarter 2011, up from 65.9 percent in second quarter, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Rental vacancy nationally was 9.8 percent during the quarter, down from 10.3 percent this time last year but up from 9.2 percent in second quarter. Rental vacancy hit a recent-year peak of 11.1 percent during third quarter 2009, according to the data. 

“These are two unexpected changes,” said John McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute, who as recently as two weeks ago was predicting a further decline in homeownership to 65.7 percent. “I’m not used to being proved wrong.”

Homeownership peaked in the U.S. during 2004, at around 69 percent, and has shown gradual declines since that time due to the housing and foreclosure crisis and a soft economy. But McIlwain and other industry observers, such as Greg Willett, vice president of apartment research firm MPF Research, both predict homeownership will gradually fall to between 62 percent and 64 percent.

The data paint a picture of declining homeownership rates for younger and middle-aged Americans, with sustained ownership rates among older adults. Homeownership has dropped most substantially among the young and middle-aged: The homeownership rate among under-35 buyers is now at 38 percent, versus 42 percent in 2007.  During third quarter 2011, adults ages 35 to 44 had a 63.4 percent homeownership rate, down from 65.2 percent this time last year and 70.1 percent in 2005. Adults in the 45 to 54 year old age range had a 72.7 percent homeownership rate, down slightly from 73 percent this time last year and from 76.7 percent in third quarter 2005.

To McIlwain, these numbers reinforce his prediction that in the future those who buy will wait longer to buy, until their late 30s or even early 40s, and then remain homeowners into their older years as prior generations have.

“We continue to have the aspiration for homeownership, but it’ll take longer for future buyers,” he says.

Homeownership is highest in the Midwest (70.3 percent) and South (68.4 percent), but lower in the Northeast (63.7 percent) and West (60.7 percent).

Vacancy abounds

Some 85.8 percent of American housing is occupied, with 56.9 percent of that property owned and 28.9 percent rented. Among the 14.2 percent of properties vacant, 3.2 percent are for rent, 1.4 percent are for sale, 0.9 percent are temporarily vacant (sold or leased but with tenants or owners not yet living there), and 5.4 percent of properties are currently “held off market” due to their status as a non-primary residence (2.5 percent) or for other reasons (2.9 percent).

Rental vacancy was down slightly year-over-year within metropolitan statistical areas (to 9.8 percent, from 10.3 percent during the year prior), little-changed in “principal cities,” and declining in the suburbs where it was 9.1 percent during third quarter 2011, down from 10.1 percent in the same quarter last year. The census noted that none of these changes were “statistically significant.” Vacancy was highest in the South (12.2 percent) and Midwest (10.5 percent), but lower in the Northeast (8 percent) and West (7.3 percent).

Top towns for rental vacancy (by metropolitan statistical area)

• Houston/Baytown/Sugarland, Texas: 17.1 percent
• Tucson, Ariz.: 17 percent
• Poughkeepsie, NY: 17 percent
• Orlando, Fla.: 16.6 percent
• Greensboro/High Point, NC: 16.3 percent
• Kansas City, Mo.: 15.2 percent
• Detroit/Warren/Livonia, Mich.: 14.9 percent
• Memphis, Tenn.: 14.8 percent
• Charlotte/Gastonia/Concord, NC: 14.6 percent
• Indianapolis, Ind.: 14.5 percent

Top towns for owned-home vacancy (by metropolitan statistical area)

Vacancy among owned homes was 2.4 percent during the quarter, and has been below 3 percent nationally for several years now. Nonetheless, some metro area showed high vacancy rates among owned homes.

       Top towns for vacant owned homes (by metropolitan statistical area)

• Dayton, Ohio: 6.5 percent
• Columbia, SC: 5.1 percent
• Las Vegas/Paradise, Nev.: 4.9 percent
• Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Marietta, Ga.: 4.6 percent
• Poughkeepsie/Newburgh, NY/Middletown, NJ: 4.6 percent
• Richmond, Va.: 4 percent
• Tampa-St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Fla.: 3.8 percent
• Grand Rapids, Wyo. Mich.: 3.8 percent
• Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News, Va.: 3.7 percent
• Chicago/Naperville/Joliet, Ill.: 3.1 percent

Zillow

Feel boxed in, in a good way.

By Zillow 
411 W Mary St. Austin TX
3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
Asking price: $875,000

As the host city for the music and film festival South by Southwest and the ever-popular music show Austin City Limits, the Texas capital is one of the top meccas for cultural hipness in the U.S.

When it comes to creative architectural design, Austin is no slouch in that department, either, as demonstrated by this one-of-a-kind modern house in the trendy SoCo (South of Congress) neighborhood listed on the Austin real estate market for $875,000.

Designed by Austin team Spaller Glover Design Build in 2011, this home was created to be a piece of art.

“The company has a reputation for hip, cool and groovy,” explained listing agent Kenny Hilbig. “They’ve done other projects in the area that are phenomenal.”

The square-shaped home features an all-white masonry exterior punctuated by custom-built, round windows. The effect of the round windows in the box-like dwelling only serves to emphasize the geometric dimensions of the building, juxtaposing not only the square shape of the house, but the rectangular shape of the exterior tiles.

Not only are circular windows difficult to build, but they’re expensive and hard to weatherize, said Hilberg. “But they managed to do all those things and build a really quality product.”

An enormous glass door opens into the front of the home where the chevron-patterned white oak flooring leads to a great room where a sitting area features a removable platform.

A top-of-the-line kitchen has Carerra marble countertops and backsplash as well as high-end appliances.

The master bath is lined with onyx tile and focused around a custom circular glass-tiled soaking tub with a shower head above. Hilberg says that there is room for a shower curtain for those nervous about the concept.

First listed in September, the home has had a recent slash in price — from $929,000 to $875,000 — a 5.8 percent reduction.

With a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-loan, this modern home could be yours for a $4,898 monthly payment, according to data from Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace.

Zillow

A stage in the living room provides elevated hang out space.

Zillow

The kitchen features Carrara marble countertops and blacksplash.

Zillow

The master bath features a custom circular tub.

See more photos of the modern home on Zillow.

Zillow’s site is filled with information on homes for sale and apartments for rent, plus data on more than 100 million homes in the U.S., so lots of homes catch our eye.

See below for what $300,000 can buy you in Baltimore County Maryland

You can live like a rock star in a place like this.

By Zillow

7 Montagel Way, Shoal Creek, Alabama
For sale: $17.9 million

You would expect that someone who owned a home with guitar-shaped landscaping to be an avid guitarist, or perhaps a collector, or at least some sort of music buff.

The owner of this prime piece of Alabama real estate is none of the above,  but Larry House, the former CEO of MedPartners, a physician management company.

“The guitar was just a whimsical, great idea,” explains listing agent Pam Ausley. “You know he just thought it up; he didn’t make a lot of it, but it’s gotten a lot of attention.”

According to Ausley, the guitar-shaped grounds are just “a small part” of a house she likens to Versailles.

The home was built and designed by House in 1997 for a reported $26 million. House hired International Fine Arts Conservation Studios, which also worked on the Buckingham Palace, to install much of the detailing.

Listed for $17.9 million, the home has 55,000 square feet of living space and features high-end finishes like marble floors, mahogany floors and doors as well as gold and silver leafing and hand-painted frescoes.

The home sits on 27 parklike acres and has equestrian trails, four pastures, indoor and outdoor arenas as well as a six-stall barn with attached living quarters. Located just 25 minutes outside Birmingham, and two hours from Atlanta, Ausley describes the surrounding Shoal Creek area as a mix between a national park and a resort with access to some of the best golfing in the country.

With 15 bedrooms, 22 bathrooms, a 13-car temperature-controlled garage, a  25-seat home theater, a full-sized commercial elevator, and a  2,000-bottle wine cellar, Ausley says the home has gotten a little too big for House.

“Their kids are grown, and they’re just ready to do something different,” she said. “He knows it’s not the best time to sell; he’s just ready.”

Even with current low mortgage rates, this Shoal Creek home has a pretty pricey monthly payment. According to data from the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, with a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-loan, the monthly payment will be $75,044.

The listing agent likens the mansion to Versailles.

When building this, the details obviously mattered.

The home is in a parklike setting.

At 55,000 square feet, you’ll have plenty of room to spread out.

Winter wonderlands are cute and all, but they get pretty cold too.

By Zillow

While September brings the first day of fall, October can be the harbinger of the winter and all of its frigid pitfalls. It’s best to be prepared for the frost and snow with a few simple tasks that will prevent drafts, frosty windows and every homeowner’s nightmare: Busted pipes.

A good place to start prior to tackling problem areas in your home is a home energy audit. This will pinpoint specific places in your house where heat escapes. The U.S. Department of Energy has a do-it-yourself energy assessment, or you can hire someone to do the audit for you.

Weatherstripping

Cold air can seep in through those little gaps between your door and the door frame, quickly reversing any effort you take to heat your home. Weatherstripping covers the sides and top of the door and a sweep fills the space between the threshold and door bottom. Hardware stores and home centers sell numerous products in metal, foam, rubber and plastic for this purpose and many can be installed in an afternoon.

Windows
This may be another area where additional weatherstripping or caulk is needed to fill any visible gaps, though that still might not be enough remediation to prevent drafts. While windows add much needed winter light, they can let out a lot of heat — up to 12 times more than a wall if they’re single pane. Blinds can keep a little heat in, but heavier shades or curtains will minimize heat loss.

Fireplace
Fantasizing about a cozy evening in front of the fire? Your romantic night might be cut short if your fireplace hasn’t been serviced. The National Fire Protection Association recommends that chimneys are swept at least once a year.

Furnace
It’s also recommended that furnaces be serviced once a year. A heating system can break down at the most inopportune time is it’s not serviced. Worse, it can pump carbon monoxide into a home or eventually stop working. While a furnace service can run up to $100, the cost benefits are undeniable, considering the cost of a major fix or replacement.

Ducts
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a home with central heating can lose between 10 and 30 percent of its heated air before that air reaches the vents if duct work is not well-connected and insulated, or if it must travel through unheated spaces.

Pipes
Frozen pipes are a royal nuisance, but with a little effort, many instances can be prevented. The best way to tackle these is to wrap pipes that run the exterior of the home with heating tape. Turn off the water and drain the remaining water at the inside valves. You can also purchase insulated covers for additional prevention.

When Cynthia and Gerald Matthews relocated from Ottawa to Bloomington, Ind., house hunting had some pleasant surprises. “It was much cheaper than we thought it would be,” says Cynthia Matthews, who bought a three-bedroom, brick neocolonial-style house for 5 percent less than the $196,999 asking price and got a mortgage rate close to 4 percent. “To say it’s a buyer’s market would be an understatement.”

People like the Matthewses who survive the scrutiny of mortgage lenders are getting the best deals of the five-year U.S. housing bust — and perhaps the best deals of a generation — after a 31 percent decline in home prices since 2006. It’s the bright side of an otherwise bleak real estate market: Good houses at cheap prices are plentiful, and mortgage rates are at record lows — an average of 3.94 percent for 30-year loans during the first week of October.

Bloomberg Businessweek: Mortgage rates in U.S. little changed near lowest on record

“It’s hard to see the possibility of losing on a home purchase right now, with these mortgage rates,” says Dean Baker, an economist who in 2005 predicted that house prices would tumble. “Prices may go lower, but not by much.”

Buying a $300,000 home with a 4 percent mortgage means a monthly payment of $1,145, assuming a 20 percent down payment. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. predicts that prices may decline an additional 3.5 percent by mid-2012, while mortgage rates will increase by a half-point. If that proves accurate, that home would sell for $289,000, while the monthly mortgage bill would be $1,171. “Even if there is another recession, people who can qualify for a mortgage won’t gain anything by playing the waiting game,” says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS in Englewood, Colo.

Bloomberg Businessweek: America’s 50 best cities

Getting those low rates can be a grueling process. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which securitize about two-thirds of new U.S. mortgages, have enacted the strictest qualification standards in more than a decade as they try to improve the credit quality of their portfolios.

Christine Trendell bought a house two months ago in Canton, Mass., a suburb of Boston, where real estate prices fell 25 percent through early this year before gaining 10 percent in the recent quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. The wood-shingled house, built in 1920, has a screened-in front porch. Trendell and her husband had to submit a pile of bank statements, retirement-fund tallies and years of tax returns that stacked almost two inches high, she says. The lender required them to fax their pay stubs repeatedly near the end, she says, to make sure they still had their jobs. They were able to get the mortgage because they have pristine credit records, she says. “The low rates made it affordable to buy the house, but we didn’t know if we were going to be able to get a loan,” says Trendell. “Rates don’t matter if you can’t get a mortgage.”

Bloomberg Businessweek: America’s next best-performing housing markets

Buyers are still cautious about taking advantage of deals. Sales of previously owned homes were down 31 percent in August from their 2005 peak, according to the NAR. Neither economist Baker nor Karl Case, co-founder of the Case-Shiller home price index, expect property bargains to be a cure-all for the worst housing collapse on record. Says Case: “Houses are cheap right now, but a lot of people are too scared to buy, no matter what kind of deal they get.”

The bottom line: Home prices down 31 percent since 2006 and mortgage rates averaging 3.94 percent mean bargains for buyers with good credit ratings.

Copyright © 2011 Bloomberg L.P.All rights reserved.

Cedar Rapids has been home to Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood, Terry Farrell and Zach Johnson. This house is huge – 4,000 square feet of living space on almost three full acres! The living room has fancy woodwork, built-in bookshelves and French doors. The dining room has three big windows, wood floors and wainscoting. The kitchen has new white cabinets, a cooktop island and a small breakfast nook. The lower-level family room comes with a bar, a stone fireplace and a stone wine cellar. There’s a four-car garage plus a stocked pond with a fountain and guest chalet.

View the listing.

In the Long Island ZIP code 11962, better known as Sagaponack, N.Y., the most expensive property currently for sale is listed at $30 million. That’s for a partially developed 3.8-acre lot of prime beachfront land with a six-bedroom house, a quaint cottage and “room for tennis and pool,” according to the Corcoran Group listing. The property also comes with billionaire neighbors like industrialist Ira Rennert, whose massive Fair Field estate is assessed at $200 million, and hedge fund boss David Tepper, who recently tore down his $43.5 million house to build a bigger one.

The thick concentration of some of America’s richest people helped make the swanky Hamptons village the third most expensive ZIP code in the country for home sales this year, with a median asking price of $3,595,000. It comes in behind two ZIP codes that regularly grace the top spots of our list: Alpine, N.J., 07620, at No. 1, and Atherton, Calif., 94027, at No. 2.

Alpine is an exclusive New York City suburb where the median home price is $4,295,000, street addresses are regularly scrambled on Google and the residents include celebrities like Stevie Wonder and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. In Atherton, a tony town in the San Francisco Bay area, $4,295,000 is the median home price thanks to tech billionaires like Eric Schmidt and Meg Whitman.

Forbes.com slideshow: Homes in the 50 most expensive ZIP codes

We compiled our list with the help of Altos Research, a Mountainview, Calif.-based company that tracks housing data in real time. It pulled pricing information for more than 20,000 ZIP codes across the U.S. for June 2 to Sept. 2, zeroing in on the 500 most expensive. Altos calculated the median asking price for both single-family homes and condominiums, weighting the price based on the mix of local property types. We did not include co-ops. Altos limited the search to ZIP codes where 20 or more residences were listed for sale, including short sales and bank-owned foreclosures on the market. To smooth out any wrinkles caused by a week’s unusual activity (like, say, an expensive home coming to market in an area where luxury properties are rare), Altos used a rolling average for the 90-day period.

Since our list is based on asking prices rather than tax assessments, it may be unfair to assume that our list is completely representative of the communities featured — for example, there could be pockets of long-time residents in modest homes in areas that have become swankier in recent years. Rather, our list is a snapshot of each market’s current activity. “We look at listing prices because, if you were to go into one of these markets with the intention of buying a home, this is what you would see in the market,” says Michael Simonsen, chief executive of Altos Research. In some cases a ZIP may appear more than once on our list. This happens when two or more towns share the same ZIP code.

Median home prices in the 500 ZIP codes we considered are down 2 percent overall from our 2010 list, which is the mildest depreciation in years. In 2010 prices were off 5 percent year-over year and in 2009, 7 percent. Inventory levels have remained about the same since 2009, but real estate appraisers like Jonathan Miller, chief executive of New York’s Miller Samuel , say there’s been an uptick in listings in the luxury end of major U.S. markets this year. “It’s not that we’re seeing prices rise, it’s that we’re seeing more activity,” Miller told Forbes recently.

California dominates our list this year. The Silicon Valley property market continues to benefit from a burgeoning tech industry that’s increased housing demand. In addition to Atherton, Northern California ZIPs that rank highly include Hillsborough 94010 (No. 4); Los Altos Hills (No. 18) and Los Altos (No. 24), which share the ZIP code 94022; Woodside 94062 (No. 31); and Palo Alto 94301 (No. 36).

The celebrity-studded Los Angeles-area figures highly on our list as well. A bevy of $50 million and higher homes landed Beverly Hills 90210 in the fifth spot, Malibu 90265 12th, and the Bel Air section of Los Angeles 90077 19th. David Kramer, a Hilton Hyland agent specializing in Beverly Hills and Bel Air properties who represented Petra Ecclestone in her purchase of the $85 million Spelling Manor, says he is seeing more $10 million and higher sales this year than he did during the heights of the market in 2005-06. The listing prices in these ZIP codes reflect that, pushing their rankings up from last year.

The tony ski towns of Colorado are also showing strength. Despite condo prices that start as low as $105,000, Aspen’s ritziest ZIP code, 81611 (No. 20), Snowmass 81654 (No. 13) and Snowmass Village 81615 (No. 59) rank highly thanks to a bevy of estates listed for between $20 million and $40 million. And Telluride 81435 debuts on our list at No. 28 thanks to posh pads and ranches belonging to the likes of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and former Goldman Sachs CEO and New Jersey governor Jon Corzine.

Simonsen says that after the bubble burst, asking prices didn’t fall much in these posh Colorado ZIPs but days on the market increased, with homes languishing for an average of about a year before being sold.

A surprise on this year’s list is New York City. Manhattan ZIP codes have long featured on our annual list, but this year the wealthy Upper East Side, Upper West Side and West Village were surpassed by two trendy downtown neighborhoods: SoHo 10012 at No. 6, followed by TriBeCa 10013 at No. 7.

The SoHo and TriBeCa housing markets don’t have as much inventory as some other areas of Manhattan, says Gary Malin, president of the New York City-based realty firm Citi Habitats. “They are always highly sought after because of the wide-open loft spaces with high ceilings … and because there’s not a tremendous density of housing there and always a lot of demand, you’re able to get significant prices.” He notes it’s a very similar dynamic in the West Village 10014, which ranked 35th. The ZIP codes of Lower Manhattan, a neighborhood transformed since the destruction of the World Trade Center, debut in the top 500 this year as well thanks to new luxury condos that peddle outrageous amenities.

More from Forbes.com

• America’s 10 most expensive homes for sale
• The most beautiful college campuses
• What $1 million buys in America’s most expensive ZIP codes
• The most expensive colleges
• The next big boom towns in the US

© 2011 Forbes.com