The housing situation changes with the household formation cycle. Age, marital status and having children are key to explaining the tenure status of households. However, the question of what factors differentiate owners and tenants if they are at the same stage of household formation arises. Using the logit model method, the determinants of tenure status of Polish households in the same life cycle stages were compared. The study used EU-SILC data for 2018. It showed that both the determinants of housing choices and the strength of their impact differ. At the household formation stage, income and the size of the city are important determinants. At this stage, housing choice is limited due to the availability of the rental market and the need for young people, who migrate to larger cities, to become independent. At the stabilization stage, the source of inequality was the gender of the household head, education, health and marital status. It has been observed that entering into an informal relationship by divorced persons does not equalize their chances of homeownership.