Feeble U.S. economic growth since the Great Recession is due almost entirely to a plunge in homeownership to more-than-50-year lows, according to new data released Monday.

A return to more normal homeownership levels could have added more than $300 billion, or an additional 1.8 percent in growth, to the economy last year, a Rosen Consulting Group study found.



"Usually when we get recovery in the economy, the housing sector leads the way," Ken Rosen, chairman of Rosen Consulting, told CNBC's "Squawk Box," saying that low interest rates would typically spur on the housing market and boost ownership.

Yet, despite an uptick of 7.5 million new total households in the past decade, there were nearly 1 million more homeowners in 2006 than there were in 2016, the data showed.