Seattleites are more likely to live in their own homes than rent.
In Seattle, 54 percent of those who live in housing units (that is, not in group quarters) live in homes that either they own or someone in their household owns. The other 46 percent of this population live in a home that is rented.
Homeowners and renters occupy nearly equal proportions of housing units.
Fifty-two percent of occupied housing units are renter-occupied and homeowners live in the remaining 48 percent. Because the average household size for owner-occupied housing units is 2.32 persons and for renter-occupied units, 1.84, owner-occupied housing units are home to a larger number of people, on average. Homeownership declined slightly from 49 percent of households in 1990 to 48 in 2000. The average size household in 1990 had 2.09 persons; in 2000, 2.08 persons. While the average size of rental households remained stable since 1990 at 1.84, owner-occupied units declined in size from an average of 2.35 persons in 1990 to 2.32 persons per unit in 2000.
Seattle's homeownership rate is low for Washington but less unusual among other U.S. cities.
While their owners occupy close to half of occupied housing units in Seattle, 60 percent of occupied housing units are owner-occupied in King County; 66 percent when Seattle is excluded (see Table 1 below). In Washington State overall, 65 percent of occupied housing units are owner-occupied. Homeownership rates in the other four Washington cities shown here-Bellevue, Spokane, Tacoma, and Vancouver-are higher than that for Seattle ranging from 53 percent to 62 percent.
Seattle's home-ownership rate is higher than those for three of the other U.S. cities shown here--Austin, Boston, and San Francisco. Seattle's rate is just three percentage points higher than Austin's but 16 percentage points higher than Boston's rate and 13 percentage points higher than San Francisco's. The homeownership rates for the other cities range from one to 10 percentage points higher than Seattle's rate (see Table 1 below). Nationwide, 66 percent of occupied housing units are owner-occupied.
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Table 1: Housing Tenure and Average Household Size in Seattle, |
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|
Occupied Housing Units |
Average Household Size |
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|
Owner-occupied (percent) |
Renter-occupied (percent) |
Owner-occupied units |
Renter-occupied units |
|
|
Seattle |
48 |
52 |
2.32 |
1.84 |
|
King County |
60 |
40 |
2.60 |
2.08 |
|
Washington State |
65 |
35 |
2.65 |
2.32 |
|
United States |
66 |
34 |
2.69 |
2.40 |
|
OTHER WASHINGTON CITIES |
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|
Bellevue |
62 |
39 |
2.54 |
2.10 |
|
Spokane |
59 |
41 |
2.47 |
2.11 |
|
Tacoma |
55 |
45 |
2.60 |
2.27 |
|
Vancouver |
53 |
47 |
2.57 |
2.42 |
|
SELECTED CITIES |
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|
Austin, Texas |
45 |
55 |
2.65 |
2.19 |
|
Boston, Mass. |
32 |
68 |
2.51 |
2.22 |
|
Charlotte, N.C. |
58 |
43 |
2.56 |
2.30 |
|
Cleveland, Ohio |
49 |
52 |
2.56 |
2.32 |
|
Denver, Colo. |
53 |
48 |
2.41 |
2.10 |
|
Kansas City, Mo. |
58 |
42 |
2.52 |
2.11 |
|
Memphis, Tenn. |
56 |
44 |
2.62 |
2.40 |
|
Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minn. |
53 |
47 |
2.55 |
2.09 |
|
Oklahoma City, Okla. |
59 |
41 |
2.51 |
2.27 |
|
Portland, Ore. |
56 |
44 |
2.47 |
2.08 |
|
San Francisco, Calif. |
35 |
65 |
2.73 |
2.06 |
|
Tucson, Ariz. |
53 |
47 |
2.58 |
2.24 |
|
NOTE: The first two columns may not round to 100 due to rounding error. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, 2001, Table DP-1. Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000. |
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OTHER INFORMATION ON POPULATION TRENDS:
