Homeownership among working families with children has fallen in recent decades even as the overall population has seen a rise in homeownership, according to a new study.
Families with low to moderate incomes have been especially hard hit according to the study by the Center for Housing Policy. In 1978, 62.5 percent of all such families owned their homes. By 2001 their homeownership rate had fallen to 56.6 percent, according to the study.
Meanwhile, the nation as a whole has seen a record increase in homeownership. More than 68 percent of Americans live in homes they own, according to government figures.
The Center for Housing Policy’s latest study, Working Families with Children: A Closer Look at Homeownership Trends examines homeownership rates from 1978 to 2001. The overall rate of homeownership in the U.S. declined to 64 percent in 1991 from 65 percent in 1978, but rebounded sharply during the ’90s. By 2001, the overall rate had risen to 68 percent.
The ownership rate among families with children, however, never recovered from losses experienced during the 1980s. In 1978, 70.5 percent of families with children owned their homes. In 2001, the share was 68.4 percent. The decline is worse among low- to moderate-income working families with children. The rate of ownership fell to 56.6 percent in 2001 down from 62.5 percent in 1978 among this group.
For the purposes of the study, “working families” were defined as households earning less than 120 percent of the local median income but more than the annualized earnings of a full-time minimum wage job ($10,712).