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For many people, whether native or foreign born, homeownership is their American dream. In 2002, homeownership rates for natives (70.3 percent), naturalized citizens (67.6 percent), and noncitizens (34.9 percent) were near their highest levels.
The number of mobile homes grew substantially in recent decades. Classified as "trailers" in 1950, mobile homes have been the fastest growing type of housing—increasing in number from 315,000 then to almost 8.8 million in 2000. The peak of mobile home growth was in the 1970s and 1980s, when their number increased over 2.5 million during each decade. In both percentage and absolute number, the growth of mobile homes slowed in the 1990s, compared with the previous two decades.
Occupied units are generally considered crowded if they have more than one person per room and severely crowded if more than 1.5 persons per room. Nationally, 5.7 percent of all occupied units were crowded and 2.7 percent severely crowded. The figures were much higher for renters: 11 percent were crowded and 5.8 percent severely crowded; for owners, the proportions were 3.1 and 1.2 percent respectively. Of the 69.8 million owner-occupied units in 2000, 11 percent were built between 1995 and March 2000, higher than the percentage of new units occupied by renters (6.4 percent). On the other hand, renters were more likely than owners to live in old homes (16.3 compared with 14.2 percent).
New homes were most common in the South and West. In the South, 12.7 percent of the total inventory was new (built 1995 to March 2000). The West was second at 10.5 percent. New housing was much scarcer in the Midwest and Northeast, constituting 8.4 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, of the housing stock. Most old and new housing units are "1, detached" units, that is, site-built, modular or prefabricated freestanding houses. This sort of construction is more common among old units (63.0 percent) than new (57.9 percent). However, new homes are more often single-family residences (83.2 percent) than old homes (69.9 percent).
The large majority (78.1 percent) of American housing was inside metropolitan areas. However, homes built before 1920 were more likely to be outside metropolitan areas than more recently constructed homes. Starting in the 1960s, half or more of American residences were built in suburbs. Just 30.8 percent of the old units are in suburban areas.
National vacancy rates in the first quarter 2004 were 10.4 percent in rental housing and 1.7 percent in homeowner housing. The Census Bureau said that while the rental vacancy rate was higher than the previous year's rate (9.4 percent), it was not different from the previous quarter's rate (10.2 percent). For homeowner vacancies, the first quarter 2004 rate (1.7 percent) was not different from the rate from the previous quarter (1.8 percent), or the rate from the previous year (1.7 percent).
About 88 percent of the housing units in the country (by then up to 120 million) were occupied year round as of early 2003. The rest were considered vacant because they were for recreational or occasional use, they were for sale or for rent, or they were vacant for other reasons.
The national vacancy rate of 12 percent rose about two percentage points by 2003 from the late 1990's. The rental vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2003 was highest in the South at 12.4 percent and lowest in the Northeast at 6.0 percent.
Forty-three percent of housing units in central cities were multifamily, compared with 20 percent of the housing units in suburban areas and 12 percent in nonmetropolitan areas. Mobile homes were the most common in nonmetropolitan areas - accounting for 16 percent of all housing units. In metropolitan areas, mobile homes accounted for 7 percent of the housing in the suburbs and only 1 percent in central cities.
Asian and Pacific Islanders, Blacks, and Hispanics were more likely than White non-Hispanics to live in rental housing in 1999. About 51 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander householders, 46 percent of Black householders, and 45 percent of Hispanic householders were homeowners, compared with 74 percent of White non-Hispanic householders.
The proportion of householders living in newly constructed housing also varied by race and ethnicity. About 6 percent of both White non-Hispanic and Asian and Pacific Islander householders lived in housing that was built in the 4 years prior to the survey, compared with 5 percent of Black householders and 4 percent of Hispanic householders.
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