LARGE PERCENTAGE OF US PROPERTIES ARE OWNED FREE AND CLEAR

WASHINGTON - Nearly 40 percent of all residential properties in the United States, owner-occupied and rental units, are not mortgaged but are owned free and clear. This is just an example of housing finance information that can be found in a new report, Residential Finance Survey: 2001, being released today by HUD and the Census Bureau.

The Survey looks at all privately owned, non-farm properties and all sources of mortgage financing. Data collection involved interviews with the owner-occupants and owners of rental properties with further data collection from the holders of the mortgage loans. The source for estimates in the report, the Survey of Residential Finance, is part of the decennial Census.

Extensive information on housing finance is reported for owners and mortgage holders interviewed in 2001. For example:

• About a quarter of all mortgages are insured or guaranteed by private mortgage insurance companies, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veteran's Administration (VA), Rural Housing Service, or state agencies.
• As a result of refinancing and residential mobility, most mortgages (60 percent) for single-family properties are fairly new, i.e., originated within the 4 years prior to the survey.
• Between 1991 and 2001, total mortgage debt outstanding increased by over 80 percent. (Residential mortgage debt has continued to grow since the survey and has increased another 50 percent between 2001 and the first quarter of 2005 according to Federal Reserve statistics.)
• Installment loans used to finance manufactured or mobile homes are predominately supplied by finance companies.

The survey also collected information on the characteristics of the housing units or properties, including: location, year built, year acquired, purchase price and current value, age restrictions, recent capital improvements, and any receipt of subsidy or assistance. The basic demographics of the owners was collected including; age, race, sex, Hispanic/Latino origin, veteran status, and income.

The main purpose of the survey was to collect information about mortgage financing. The report contains information for all first mortgages including: application method, reasons for refinancing, amounts and uses of cash-outs, year of origination, use of mortgage insurance or guarantees, type of mortgage, origination amounts and current balance, interest rate, interest rate buydowns, original and remaining term of the mortgage, indexes and caps used for ARMs, and items included in and amounts of monthly payments. Similar, but less detailed, information is reported for junior mortgages and home equity lines of credit.

For rental properties, information is reported on rental income, vacancy losses, real estate taxes, costs for maintenance and repairs, utility and fuel expenses, administrative and management expenses, capital improvement expenditures, and legal form of ownership.

The report chapters are organized by tenure - owner-occupied and rental and vacant units - and by number of units in the property. There are separate chapters for condominiums and for manufactured (mobile) homes.

Appendices to the report include facsimiles of the questionnaires, sample design and sampling errors, content descriptions and definitions, and data processing procedures. The report is available for free as a downloadable PDF document from either the HUD Internet site or Census Internet site. In addition to the tables for the nation and the four Census regions included in the report, additional tables for more detailed geographical areas are available on the Census Internet site. Printed (or hard) copies of the report are available from HUDUSER.ORG (800-245-2691) or from the Census Bureau Customer Service Center (301-763-4636).

The micro data files in ASCII and SAS formats are available for downloading at the two sites. Additional information concerning the survey can also be found on either Internet site. These details include: codebooks for the micro data files; survey background and development, and FAQs.