Home ownership in record plunge

Fourth quarter saw biggest one-year drop in since tracking began in 1965 - as mortgage problems and rising foreclosures take their toll.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The housing and mortgage meltdown caused the biggest one-year drop in the rate of homeownership on record, according to government figures released Tuesday.

The Census Bureau report showed that home owners accounted for 67.8% of occupied homes in the fourth quarter, down 1.1 points from a year earlier. It's the largest year-over-year drop recorded in the report. The ownership rate was also well below the 68.2% ownership rate in the third quarter of 2007.

Homeownership rates, which have been tracked since 1965, hit a record high of 69.2% at the end of 2004.

The report also also showed a record 2.18 million homes vacant and available for sale in the fourth quarter, up from the 2.07 million in the third quarter and the 2.1 million a year earlier. The fourth-quarter reading on vacant homes for sale matched the previous record set in the first three months of 2007.

The report comes the same day that RealtyTrac, an online seller of foreclosure properties, reported that total foreclosure filings grew 75% in 2007 and S&P Case/Shiller, which tracks home values in the nation's largest markets, posted the biggest price decline on record its November reading.

The glut of vacant homes is a sign the evaporation of demand for home sales, which has hammered housing values. It also signals bad news for homebuilders, who were stuck with a record inventory of 195,000 completed homes at the end of December. A separate Census Bureau report Monday showed the biggest drop in new home sales on record in 2007.