Homeownership in the United States

The homeownership rate in the United Statescite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t20.html|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|accessdate=2006-10-06] cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t12.html|title=US Census Bureau, Homeownership in the United States, 1960-2004|accessdate=2006-10-05] in 2005 remained similar to that in other post-industrial nationscite web|url=http://www.sigov.si/umar/conference/2005/papers/Doling.pdf|title=EU homeownership rates, 2002|accessdate=2007-02-15] with 68.9% of all occupied housing units being occupied by the unit's owner. Home ownership rates vary depending on demographic characteristics of households such as ethnicity, race, type of household as well as location and type of settlement. Since 1960, the homeownership rate in the United States has remained relatively stable having increased xx.x% since 1960 when 62.1% of American households owned their own home. Homeownership was most common in rural areas and suburbs with three quarters of suburban households being homeowners. Among the country's regions the Midwestern states had the highest homeownership rate with the Western states having the lowest.cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t12.html|title=US Census Bureau, Homeownership in the United States, 1960-2004|accessdate=2006-10-05] Homeowners in the United States also tend to have higher incomes and households residing in their own home were more likely to be families (as opposed to individuals) than were their tenant counterparts.cite web|url=http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032005/hhinc/new05_000.htm|title=US Census Bureau, distribution of homeowners among the income quitniles|accessdate=2006-10-05] Among racial demographics, European Americans had the country's highest homeownership rate, while those identifying as being African American had the lowest homeownership rate.cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t20.html|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|accessdate=2006-10-06]

Method

In the US, the homeownership rate is created through the "Housing Vacancy Survey" by the US Census Bureau. It is created by dividing the owner occupied units by the total number of occupied units. This is important to note to understand changes in the homeownership rate over time. The bust of the housing bubble resulted in many houses becoming foreclosed. However, the decreased in the homeownership rate from 3Q2007 to 4Q2007 was mostly a result of an increase in the renter's population and less due to a decrease in the homeowner population.

Race

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thumb|350px|Homeownership rate according to race.">cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t20.html|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|accessdate=2006-10-06] Homeownership rate, as well as the fluctuations within it, varied significantly with race.cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t20.html|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|accessdate=2006-10-06] While homeowners constitutes the majority of White, Asian and Native American households, the homeownership rate for African Americans and those idenifing as Hispanic or Latino fell short of the fifty percent threshold. Whites had the highest homeownership rate, followed by Asians and Native Americans. As of 2005, African Americans had once again the lowest homeownership rate in the country. Hispanics had the lowest homeownership rate in the country in ten out of twelve years between 1993 and 2005. Only in 2002 and 2005 did the homeownership rate for Hispanics exceed that of African Americans. Chronicle fluctuations were slight however for all races, commonly not changing more than two percentage points per year. The strongest fluctuation in the percentage of homeowners was among non-White minorities. The homeownership for minorities approached the sixty percent mark in 2005, which was a significant achievement because less than half of all minority households owned homes as recently as 1994. The ownership rate for minorities increased by 24.1%, from 47.7% in 1993 to 59.2% in 2005. The increase among White Americans was less subtantial. In 2005, 75.8% of White Americans owned their own homes, compared to 70% in 1993. Thus one can conclude that despite a large remaining discrepancy between the homeownership rates among different racial groups, the gap is closing with ownership rates increasing more substantially for minorities than for Whites.cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/annual05/ann05t20.html|title=US Census Bureau, homeownership by race|accessdate=2006-10-06]

References

ee also

*Household income in the United States
*Real estate pricing
*Economy of the United States
*Poverty in the United States
*Income quintiles

External links

* [http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/hvs.html U.S. Census Bureau's Housing Vacancy Survey]
* [http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2007/0507karger.html The Homeownership Myth] article in Dollars & Sense magazine, accessed May 30, 2007