America’s three housing markets

The recent housing crisis has made many Americans more conscious of the gap between homeowners and rents. The nation's housing market has been split into three distinct segments: homeowners with mortgages or loans on their property; renters; and people who own their home outright.

According to the 2010 census and reported by the Demo Memo blog, 45 percent of the nation's 117 million households are homeowners with a mortgage or loan on their property. Another 35 percent are renters, and 20 percent are homeowners who own their home free and clear. These segments vary in size by state.

Homeowners with mortgages: In eight states, more than half of households are homeowners with mortgages or loans on their home. Utah ranks number one in this category, with 54 percent of the state's households headed by homeowners with a mortgage. The other states in which the majority of households are homeowners with mortgages are Maryland, Minnesota, Delaware, New Hampshire, Colorado, Indiana and Virginia. The state with the smallest percentage of encumbered households is New York, at 36 percent.

Renters: New York tops the list in the percentage of households that rent, at 47 percent, most of them in the New York metropolitan area. The only other states in which renters outnumber the other two categories (homeowners with and homeowners without a mortgage) are California (44 percent) and Hawaii (42 percent). West Virginia has the fewest renter households, at 27 percent.

Homeowners free and clear: West Virginia is the state with the largest percentage of homeowners who own their home free and clear, at 35 percent. Other states in which at least one in four households are homeowners without mortgages are: Mississippi, North Dakota, Louisiana, South Dakota, Montana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Alabama, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Iowa.

For more information: http://demomemo.blogspot.com/2011/08/three-housing-markets.html