Re: Not always joking, it seems

Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Colette Reap <colette@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Tim Merrigan <tppm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> Colette Reap <colette@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>> The actual percentage of home owner****p in the UK is about 70%.
> 
>>> Need a definition of terms.  What constitutes a "home"?
> 
>>> IME here in the US that term generally means a free standing house
>>> owned by the tenants.
> 
> I'm skeptical that the majority of American families own a home, and
> even more skeptical that the majority own a free-standing house rather
> than a rowhouse, condo, co-op, or half a duplex.  The US is no longer
> a predominantly rural nation.  Most Americans live in built-up areas.

The latest data from the US Census Bureau says 67.8%(1). From looking at
the definitions page I think that the homeowner****p rate includes any
owner-occupied housing unit, not just free-standing houses. It also
appears that they're not trying to count "families", which is a somewhat
ambiguous concept, but instead use the percentage of housing units that
are owner-occupied as a fraction of the total number of housing units in
the country. They don't care how many "families" are living in a unit.
I haven't been able to find stats on what percentage of total housing
units are single-unit versus multi-unit, but they do show stats for
vacant units for sale and rent. The 2007 stats(2) show 34% of vacant
rental
units are single-unit structures and 84% of vacant units for sale are
single-unit structures. If owner****p stats are comparable to the units for
sale then the vast majority of owner-occupied housing is free-standing
houses.

(1) http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr407/q407tab5.html
(2) http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr407/q407tab8.html

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com