The latest news on homeownership can be seen through two prisms.

If you’re a glass-is-half-full type, you’d note that California’s ownership rate ended 2018 at an eight-year high.

The glass-is-half-empty personality, however, would focus on the fact that the share of California’s residents living in their own home is topped by 48 other states.

Fresh fourth-quarter Census figures show 56 percent of California households lived in residences they owned — the highest state ownership rate since the third quarter of 2010 and No. 49 among the states. In the third quarter, ownership ran 55.2 percent, again No. 49 nationally. A year earlier, 55.1 percent owned … ranking 49th.

This trend might seem improbable amid all the discussion about a housing shortage and a softening real estate market. But continued California job growth appears to be creating enough new homebuyers to nudge ownership up.

Please note that California ownership has slumped since the last real estate boom, an era fueled by insanely generous lenders that ultimately collapsed into the Great Recession. Between 2005 and 2009, ownership averaged 58.5 percent. Since then the rate has averaged 49.1 percent as bankers tightened borrowing standards and the populace soured on homebuying for a host of reasons.

In Southern California, ownership improvements remained elusive in 2018’s final quarter.

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, 49.1 percent of households lived in residences they owned, No. 74 among 75 top U.S.metro areas. In the previous quarter, ownership ran 47.3 percent — worst in the nation. A year earlier, 51.2 percent owned, No. 72 out of 75 large markets. Between 2005 and 2009, L.A.-O.C. ownership averaged 52.8 percent.

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, 62.4 percent of households lived in residences they owned in the fourth quarter — No. 43 among those 75 metro areas. That’s down from the previous quarter’s 64.7 percent (No. 34 nationally) but up from 61 percent in 2017’s last quarter — No. 53 out of 75 large markets. Still, Inland Empire ownership ran at 67 percent in 2005-2009.

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Homeownership rates nationally are also well off recent highs. Yes, the U.S. rate for the fourth quarter was 64.8 percent — up from the cyclical low of 62.9 percent in 2016 — but it’s also well off the 69.4 percent peak in the crazy-mortgage bubble days of 2004.