As they witness a steady flow of new and existing households in and out of the ownership market, housing analysts at Bank of America say the nation’s homeownership rate will decline further.

The rate will eventually fall to about 63% and remain there, they say, pulled down by the continued flow of foreclosures. Some 34.6% of families rented their home in the first quarter, up from 34% at the end of 2011.

The national homeownership rate stood at 65.4% in the first quarter, falling 1 percentage point from a year earlier and 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.