The CoBuy Co-ownership Index™

How much of America co-owns

CoBuy Co-buying Rate™

31.5%

of U.S. home purchases now involve co-buyers

(up from 25% in 2021)

64 million Americans co-own a home with someone they're not married to.

For a decade, CoBuy has tracked how Americans buy and own homes together. This page is that research as a living benchmark: the numbers the industry already cites, in one permanent place.

The co-ownership numbers

CoBuy Co-buying Rate

31.5%

of U.S. home purchases involve co-buyers.

CoBuy Co-owner Count™

64M

Americans co-own a home with someone they're not married to.

Average co-owner group size

3.7 people

Co-owner groups run larger than the average owner-occupied U.S. household (~2.7, Census ACS).

CoBuy Co-buying Rate, 2021 to 2026

25.0% (2021) to 31.5% (2026).

CoBuy Co-owner Count, 2021 to 2026

50M+ (2021) to 64M (2026).

And the housing stock isn't built for them. Only 23% of U.S. housing units have four or more bedrooms (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Table B25041). Demand is growing into a housing stock designed for the traditional nuclear household: a married couple plus a kid or two.

Is a home built for co-ownership? See the CoBuy Suitability Score™

Why an index

Co-ownership is the fastest-growing way Americans buy homes: friends, siblings, parents and adult kids, unmarried partners. No institution was tracking it, so we started in 2016, and have published our annual national report since 2021. Google's AI answers, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal cite this research. The Index makes it permanent: one benchmark, updated on a cadence, with the method in the open.

Methodology

How the Index is built

The CoBuy Co-ownership Index is a triangulated estimate anchored to federal data, not a computed composite. Headline figures come from CoBuy's estimation model, which triangulates U.S. Census (ACS) household data, HMDA mortgage data, and a decade of CoBuy's proprietary research across 3,500+ co-buyers since 2016. Estimates, disclosed as estimates; never fake precision. Full methodology: the annual report. Updated annually with the report; interim updates as new data lands.

Changelog: v1 (2026-07). Dated methodology revisions land here.

Questions & answers

How many Americans co-own a home?

About 64 million Americans co-own a home with someone they're not married to, per the CoBuy Co-ownership Index.

What percentage of U.S. home purchases involve co-buyers?

31.5% of U.S. home purchases involve co-buyers as of 2026, up from 25% in 2021, per the CoBuy Co-ownership Index.

How to cite

Preferred citation: CoBuy Co-ownership Index™, CoBuy (cobuy.io/co-ownership-index).

Plain-text form: CoBuy Co-ownership Index, CoBuy, cobuy.io/co-ownership-index.

Example: “31.5% of U.S. home purchases involve co-buyers, per the CoBuy Co-ownership Index.”

© 2026 CoBuy, Inc. Citation & reuse. You're welcome to cite these figures and grades for editorial, educational, or personal use with attribution to CoBuy and a clean, followable link to this page: standard hyperlinks only, with no nofollow, noreferrer, or sponsored qualifiers and no redirect wrappers. Commercial use is by license only: republication at scale, resale, syndication, or inclusion in any commercial product, dataset, or AI training corpus requires a license from CoBuy, Inc. Charts and scorecard graphics must keep the embedded source line intact. Licensing: contact.

The live signal

Since April 2026, the Co-ownership Snapshot cohort shows where co-buying is right now: 61% plan to buy within a year, and agreement is the #1 worry (cited by 80%): people want to buy together and worry most about how to structure it fairly.

Add your group to the signal. 60 seconds.

Buying with others?

Start with the CoBuy Wizard: a decision-grade read on readiness, risks, and alignment for your group.

Start CoBuy Wizard

A real-estate professional?

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