The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the first wave of data from the 2013 American Housing Survey (AHS). It is a massive treasure trove of virtually everything virtually anyone might want to know about the nation's housing.
The Survey is conducted biennially and, as in past years, provides current national-level information on a wide range of housing subjects. A very wide range.
Survey participants were asked questions about their homes and the ways they live in it, ranging from the units size along various parameters, to the type of plumbing, heating, and other systems employed; amenities, the occupant's opinion of the home's condition, from what type of housing the occupant migrated, if the size of the household had grown or shrunk, and characteristics that indicate the state of emergency preparedness of the occupants.
The initial release is in the form of a single Excel workbook consisting of dozens of individual tables. The tables are presented to reflect information on all units as well as subsets of owner occupied, and rental housing. Data is also grouped by region, year-round and seasonal use, occupied and vacant properties, the year built, and various demographic characteristics of the owner or occupant.
The data is presented without analysis and is no doubt of considerable value for economic and marketing research. To wade through all of it is well beyond the scope of our ability, interest or attention span however we did pick out some tidbits that illustrate the depth and breadth of the information.
There are 115.9 million occupied, year-round housing units in the U.S, and another 12.9 million units which are vacant. Of the total number of units 2.7 million were constructed in the last four years. Of the occupied units, 75.7 million are owner occupied and 40.2 million are rentals.
The region of the country with by far the largest share of housing units is the South with 50.7 million. The Midwest runs a poor second at 30.0 million. The South also contains the lions share (4.0 million) of the nation's 7.4 million manufactured houses and dwarfs the other regions in the number of newer units with 1.4 million constructed in the last four years. The West was in second place with 600,000.
Just under 82 million of the total number of units are single family detached homes and they are five times more likely to be occupied by owners than by renters. We were surprised to note that there were more than twice as many housing units located in two-to-four unit structures (10.8 million) than in complexes with 50 units or more (5.2 million). There are 10.2 million units designated as condos.
Among vacant properties, which includes lender owned real estate, slightly more than 20 percent has been vacant more than two years.
The median square footage of an occupied home is 1,500 square feet (sf) unless it was constructed with the last four years - those units had a median of 2,000 sf. Units occupied by an owner were almost twice the size - 1,800 sf - as those occupied by renters, 971 square feet. When divided by number of persons, those in owner-occupied units had a median of 800 sf each at their disposal, tenants had 500.
Of the 132.8 million total housing units more than half (79.6 million) have between four to six rooms, two-thirds have two or three bedrooms and more than half (68.2 million) have two baths. The median age of all units in 2013 was 38 years (1975).
Almost all survey respondents reported having electricity in their units with nearly a quarter using it as heating fuel while about half use gas. Slightly fewer than half of the units have central air. Most units have fully functioning kitchens and around 94 million have complete laundry facilities.
Of 75.7 million owner occupied homes 27.3 million are owned free and clear. Among the encumbered homes, 43 million have only one mortgage, 4.9 million have two and 96,000 have three or more. Just over 400,000 mortgages are reverse products.
Nearly 32 million of the first mortgages were originated in 2005 or later and the median balance and interest rate are $122,000 and 4.5 percent respectively. The median loan-to-value ratio is 70 percent.
Of the 46.5 million owners of homes with one or more mortgages 2.6 million had failed to make one or more mortgage payments on time in the previous three months. About 2 million had missed only one payment, but 447,000 reported their home was in foreclosure and 58,000 thought there was a high likelihood they would have to leave their home within two months.
Respondents appear to be generally happy with their living conditions. When asked to rank their satisfaction with the structure on a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) only about 1 percent of respondents gave their home a 1, 2, or 3 while about one-fifth ranked it a 10. The same satisfaction was expressed when asked to rank their neighborhood with the vast majority giving it a 7 or better.
If you want more details about the homes American's live in all survey data can be accessed here. Results for 25 selected metropolitan areas will be available later this year.
