In a City Known for Its Renters, a Record Number Now Own Their Homes

New York, a city of renters since immigrants began jamming lodging houses and tenements early in the 19th century, has reached two milestones in homeownership:

One in three households now own their dwellings, according to a new analysis of census results. And the number of homes and apartments occupied by their owners has passed one million for the first time.

Propelled by a building boom, co-op and condominium conversions, the lifting of rent regulations and the availability of low-interest and risky subprime mortgages, the rate of homeownership in the city increased more from 2000 to 2005 than during all of the 1990s, according to the analysis, conducted by Queens College demographers for The New York Times.