The number of households that are homeowners in the U.S. has fallen ever so slightly, by 0.1% year over year, according to a new analysis by Redfin.

Now that's a relatively small drop, but it is also the first time homeownership has declined in nearly a decade. At the same time, the number of renters increased 2.6%.

Zoom out a bit, and it makes sense that fewer people are becoming homeowners now than just a few years ago, said Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“The interest rates went down below 3% and we saw so many households take advantage of this,” he said.

Then, when the Fed raised interest rates, mortgage rates went up too. Prices stayed high and median mortgage payments went up by $1,000 a month.

“It is quite stark,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “I mean, incomes have not gone up that much.” 

Fairweather said buying a home got more expensive, but renting costs were relatively stable.

“So a lot of people, when they're looking at the cost of buying versus renting, they're finding that renting is a more affordable option,” she said.

Zoom out even further and look across the decades, and Texas A&M University’s Daniel Oney said the homeownership rate today of 65% is par for the course. 

“And it’s actually about where it’s been historically other than the housing bubble back in the housing crisis of the early 2000s,” he said.

But boosting that homeownership rate is a lot of older Americans.

“First-time home buyers are far older than they used to be,” Oney said. They tend to be in their 40s and 50s — more established.

For younger millennials and Generation Zers looking at starter homes at $450,000, it’s pretty bleak. 

Fernando Ferreira, chair of the Wharton School’s real estate department, said it's up to local jurisdictions to make it easier to develop affordable housing. 

“New homeowners, young families, the middle class, they need affordability,” he said.

Without that, he doesn’t expect homeownership to increase any time soon.