Even as housing prices explode and new apartments sprout everywhere, the Portland area's homeownership rate is finally ticking upward, a strong signal that the millennial generation is entering the housing market.



New numbers from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey show that the region's homeownership rate rose to an estimated 61.1 percent in 2015, a significant jump from an estimated 59.5 percent homeownership the year before. Oregon's homeownership also increased, hitting the same 61.1 percent, up from 60.7 percent in 2014.



Within the city of Portland, an estimated 54 percent of households were owner-occupied last year, according to the census report. That's up from 51.4 percent in the previous year and exceeds the 53 percent homeownership rate reported in 2013.



The Portland-area increases are in line with an emerging pattern in the nation's largest metro areas of increased homeownership that could signal a long-expected entry of more of the millennial generation into the housing market, said Josh Lehner, an economist in Oregon's Office of Economic Analysis.



"It's fair to say that for a number of reasons, and we're not entirely sure of all of them, millennials are doing everything a year or two or maybe three later than previous generations," said Lehner, who regularly writes about the housing market.



The economist and other analysts have long expected the millennial wave to sweep into the housing market, following a long-established demographic pattern in which 80 percent of Americans in their 20s are renters and 80 percent of those in their 50s are homeowners. With the millennials' prolonged period as renters, he said, "we've just seen the pendulum go too far, and now it's swinging back."



The remaining local wild card, Lehner says, is how strongly Portland's vaunted urban lifestyle will maintain its hold on young households. In 2014 the city reported gaining 1,828 multifamily units and 686 single-family units, adding to a more than decadelong increase in the city's proportion of multifamily housing such as apartments and condos.



The Portland area's homeownership increase comes at a time of record-high housing prices that have created a sense of community crisis over housing affordability and neighborhood gentrification. Rising incomes and an influx of well-heeled newcomers create a market even for expensive new homes, Lehner said.



"Middle and lower parts of the income distribution are feeling the housing pinch the most, because we're not adding enough supply," he said. "Overall, affordability is eroding."



Isabelle Zifcak, owner and broker at Mt. Tabor Realty in Southeast Portland, said she regularly sees bidding wars.



"I'm amazed at the number of cash deals," she said. "I had just one cash deal in my first 15 years."



Zifcak said she is also seeing a growing number of parents of adult Portland-area children moving to the city to be close to children and grandchildren.



Gerard Mildner, associate professor and director of the Center for Real Estate at Portland State University's school of business, agreed with Lehner's analysis that millennials are pumping up the market and shared concerns about a shortage of new housing. Current homebuilding locally is still well below the average of the pre-recession era between 1990 and 2007, he said.



Metro's modest expansions of the region's urban growth boundary have been inadequate to meet the new demand, Mildner added.



"We've basically been on a land diet in the last 40 years," he said. "It's made the region a bit of a pressure cooker."



Lehner's analysis of homeownership trends in the nation's 100 largest regions shows that just over half saw ownership rates increase in 2015, with the trend most pronounced among younger buyers. A few years ago, only about 20 cities were showing increases. The pattern of rising homeownership "is more than just data noise," he said.



The U.S. homeownership rate is just under 63 percent after years of decline or flat rates.



Nationally, "we're getting close to where it's bottoming out," Lehner said.

-- Gordon Oliver