A woman looks at real estate postings outside a Berkshire Hathaway Home Services office in Montclair, N.J.

Home ownership in America is not nearly as common as it was in the past. Census Bureau figures show that in the second quarter of 2016, the home ownership rate dropped to 62.9 percent — the lowest in more than 50 years.

Are we witnessing the death of the American Dream of home ownership and a white picket fence?

Perhaps not. A recent survey showed that even though 62 percent of millennials are renting or living with roommates, almost 90 percent want to be homeowners.

A real estate sign advertising a new home for sale is pictured in Vienna, Virginia

And a recent report by the apartment rental website Zumper found that 71 percent of its users do still think the American Dream entails home ownership.

Zumper's study was conducted over the summer, comprising more than 6,000 responses, Tanguy Le Louarn, digital marketing/growth lead at Zumper said.

The poll was conducted randomly, said Le Louarn, who noted that Zumper users "skew a bit younger than the average American population, and also tend to be city dwellers." Additionally, Zumper's user base is 60 percent women, he said.

We can infer that a fair amount of people aren't renting and residing with roommates because that's their idea of living the American Dream, but because they're not in a position to buy a home. This makes sense when you consider the onus of student debt, which according to a recent Harvard study, affects 42 percent of millennials between 18 and 29 years old.