American Housing Survey – Everything you need to know

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the first wavernof data from the 2013 American Housing Survey (AHS).  It is a massive treasure trove of virtuallyrneverything virtually anyone might want to know about the nation’s housing.</p

The Survey is conducted biennially and, as in past years, provides currentrnnational-level information on a wide range of housing subjects.  A very wide range.</p

Survey participants were asked questions about their homes and the ways theyrnlive in it, ranging from the units size along various parameters, to the typernof plumbing, heating, and other systems employed; amenities, the occupant’srnopinion of the home’s condition, from what type of housing the occupantrnmigrated, if the size of the household had grown or shrunk, and characteristicsrnthat indicate the state of emergency preparedness of the occupants. </p

The initial release is in the form of a single Excel workbook consisting of dozensrnof individual tables.  The tables are presentedrnto reflect information on all units as well as subsets of owner occupied, andrnrental housing.  Data is also grouped by region,rnyear-round and seasonal use, occupied and vacant properties, the year built,rnand various demographic characteristics of the owner or occupant.</p

The data is presented without analysis and is no doubt of considerable valuernfor economic and marketing research.  Tornwade through all of it is well beyond the scope of our ability, interest orrnattention span however we did pick out some tidbits that illustrate the depthrnand breadth of the information. </p

There are 115.9 million occupied, year-round housing units in the U.S, and anotherrn12.9 million units which are vacant. Of the total number of units 2.7 millionrnwere constructed in the last four years. Of the occupied units, 75.7 millionrnare owner occupied and 40.2 million are rentals.  </p

The region of the country with by far the largest share of housing units isrnthe South with 50.7 million.  The Midwestrnruns a poor second at 30.0 million.  ThernSouth also contains the lions share (4.0 million) of the nation’s 7.4 millionrnmanufactured houses and dwarfs the other regions in the number of newer unitsrnwith 1.4 million constructed in the last four years.  The West was in second place with 600,000.  </p

Just under 82 million of the total number of units are single familyrndetached homes and they are five times more likely to be occupied by ownersrnthan by renters.  We were surprised tornnote that there were more than twice as many housing units located inrntwo-to-four unit structures (10.8 million) than in complexes with 50 units orrnmore (5.2 million).  There are 10.2rnmillion units designated as condos.   </p

Among vacant properties, which includes lender owned real estate, slightlyrnmore than 20 percent has been vacant more than two years.</p

The median square footage of an occupied home is 1,500 square feet (sf)rnunless it was constructed with the last four years – those units had a medianrnof 2,000 sf.  Units occupied by an ownerrnwere almost twice the size – 1,800 sf – as those occupied by renters, 971rnsquare feet.  When divided by number ofrnpersons, those in owner-occupied units had a median of 800 sf each at theirrndisposal, tenants had 500.</p

Of the 132.8 million total housing units more than half (79.6 million) havernbetween four to six rooms, two-thirds have two or three bedrooms and more thanrnhalf (68.2 million) have two baths.  Thernmedian age of all units in 2013 was 38 years (1975).</p

Almost all survey respondents reported having electricity in their unitsrnwith nearly a quarter using it as heating fuel while about half use gas.  Slightly fewer than half of the units haverncentral air.  Most units have fullyrnfunctioning kitchens and around 94 million have complete laundryrnfacilities.  </p

Of 75.7 million owner occupied homes 27.3 million are owned free andrnclear.  Among the encumbered homes, 43rnmillion have only one mortgage, 4.9 million have two and 96,000 have three orrnmore.  Just over 400,000 mortgages are reversernproducts.   </p

Nearly 32 million of the first mortgages were originated in 2005 or laterrnand the median balance and interest rate are $122,000 and 4.5 percent respectively.  The median loan-to-value ratio is 70 percent.</p

Of the 46.5 million owners of homes with one or morernmortgages 2.6 million had failed to make one or more mortgage payments on timernin the previous three months.  About 2rnmillion had missed only one payment, but 447,000 reported their home was inrnforeclosure and 58,000 thought there was a high likelihood they would have tornleave their home within two months.  </p

Respondents appear to be generally happy with their living conditions.  When asked to rank their satisfaction withrnthe structure on a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) only about 1 percent ofrnrespondents gave their home a 1, 2, or 3 while about one-fifth ranked it arn10.  The same satisfaction was expressedrnwhen asked to rank their neighborhood with the vast majority giving it a 7 orrnbetter.  </p

If you want more details about the homes American’s live in all survey datarncan be accessed here.  Results for 25 selected metropolitan areasrnwill be available later this year.

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.