To reinforce this, if you follow the links it states

> The term "home-ownership rate" can also be misleading because it includes households that owe on a mortgage.

Depending on your credit score and your down payment, you can wind up functionally renting a home for many years even if you "own" it on paper. It isn't until the final years of a 30 year mortgage that you actually significantly pay down the principal.

As long as interest rates remain low and the credit requirements are lax, most of America can in fact "own" a home. Expect prices to skyrocket, as buyers become more and more decoupled from the cost.

This doesn't really contradict my point. How do these people have mortgages if they're incapable of affording a down payment?

Only ~30% of people receive an inheritance, at an average age of ~50. But folks in their 50s already have a homeownership rate of >60%. I doubt inheritance has much of an impact.