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Homeownership Statistics

• About 95 million people, one third of the nation, have housing problems including a high-cost burden, overcrowding, poor quality shelter and homelessness.
  (America’s Neighbors: The Affordable Housing Crisis and the People it Affects, National Low Income Housing Coalition, Washington, DC 2004, www.nlihc.org)
  
  
• One in three American households spend more than 30 percent of income on housing, and one in seven spends more than 50 percent.
  (The State of the Nation’s Housing 2006, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University. www.jchs.harvard.edu)
  
  
• There are almost 16 million Americans paying 50 percent or more of their income for housing.
  
  
• There is not a single county in the country where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford even a one-bedroom apartment at what HUD determines to be the Fair Market Rent.
  (NLIHC: 2006)
  
  
• 2.2 million subprime home loans made in recent years have already failed or will end in foreclosure, costing homeowners as much as $164 billion.
  (King, Uriah, et al., Financial Quicksand: Payday Lending Sinks Borrowers in Debt With $4.2 billion in Predatory Fees Every Year, Center for Responsible Lending, Washington, DC 2006, www.responsiblelending.org)
  

Compared to renters of the same age, income, race, etc., homeowners in the US are:
• 12 times wealthier ^[1]
• 15% more likely to vote ^[2]
• 16% more likely to belong to school or community organizations ^[3]
• 10% more likely to attend Church ^[4]
• 12% more likely to maintain a garden ^[5]
• 28% more likely to repair or improve their homes ^[6]

Children of homeowners are:
• 25% more likely to graduate from high school ^[7]
• 116% more likely to graduate college ^[8]
• Have 3% fewer behavioral problems ^[9]
• 59% more likely to own their own home within 10 years
  of leaving their parents household ^[10]

The number of low-income families that lack safe and affordable housing is related to the number of children that suffer from asthma, viral infections, anemia, stunted growth and other health problems. About 21,000 children have stunted growth attributable to the lack of stable housing; 10,000 children between the ages of 4 and 9 are hospitalized for asthma attacks each year because of cockroach infestation at home; and more than 180 children die each year in house fires attributable to faulty electrical heating and electrical equipment.
(Sandel, Megan, et al, There is No Place Like Home: How America’s Housing Crisis Threatens Our Children, San Francisco, Calif., March 1999)

1. Tabulations of the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances
2. DiPasquale, Denise and Edward L Glaser, “Incentives and Social Capital: Are homeowners better citizens?” Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University, December 1997.
3. DiPasquale and Glaser, 1997.
4. DiPasquale and Glaser, 1997.
5. Ibid.
6. Galster, George C. “Cross-Tenure Differences in Home Maintenance and Conditions,” Land and Economics, 41. 1993
7. Bohem, Thomas P and Alan Schlottmann, “Does Family Ownership have and Economic impact on Children?” Department of Finance, University of Tennessee, 1999.
8. Ibid.
9. Haurin, Donald R., Toby L. Parcel and R. Jean Haurin, "The Impact of homeownership on Child Outcomes," Low Income Homeownership Workling Papaer Series, October 2001.
10. Boehman and Schlottman, 1999.

Habitat Affiliate Information

What are Habitat affiliates?
Habitat for Humanity's work is accomplished at the community level by affiliates — independent, locally run, nonprofit organizations. Each affiliate coordinates all aspects of Habitat home building in its local area — fund raising, building site selection, partner family selection and support, house construction, and mortgage servicing. There currently are more than 1,700 affiliates in the United States, and some 550 more international affiliates coordinate Habitat house-building projects in some 3,000 communities around the world.

All Habitat affiliates are asked to “tithe” — to give 10 percent of their contributions to fund house-building work in other nations. Tithing provides much-needed funds for international building, and it also gives affiliates the opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of Christian partnership. In 2001, U.S. affiliates tithed $9.04 million to support Habitat's work overseas. Some affiliates in developing countries also receive funding grants from Habitat for Humanity International.



What Are Habitat Houses Like in North America?

Simple. Habitat houses are modestly sized -- large enough for the homeowner family’s needs, but small enough to keep construction and maintenance costs to a minimum.
Decent. Habitat uses quality, locally available building materials. Trained staff supervise Habitat house construction and educate volunteers and partner families. House designs reflect the local climate and culture.
Affordable. The labor of volunteers and partner families, efficient building methods, modest house sizes and a no-profit, no-interest loan make it affordable for low-income people around the world to purchase a Habitat for Humanity house.

The “typical” U.S. Habitat House:

• Living space of about 1,000 square feet (exact size depends on number of bedrooms)
• One bathroom
• Covered primary entrance
• Three-foot doorways and three-foot, four-inch hallways to allow wheelchair access.

While all U.S. Habitat houses share similarities, the differences in climate and construction techniques ensure ample individuality. Plus, homeowners are given opportunities to customize their homes when possible. Average house cost around $60,000 (U.S. dollars)

Sustainable construction practices:
Creative construction techniques help Habitat maintain natural resources while providing quality houses. In Taos, New Mexico, Habitat houses are built with adobe, a mixture of clay and sand that is wetted, molded and dried to make bricks. Adobe is a traditional building material in the Southwest. Electric coils in the flooring provide radiant heating in the winter, and the high insulation value and thermal mass of the bricks helps keep the houses cool in the hot desert summers.

High insulation value is an advantage of another construction technique called straw-bale construction. In this type of house design, straw bales are place in exterior non-load-bearing walls. Radiant floor heating can be used in this type of construction as well as in adobe houses.

Energy efficiency:
Environmental responsibility is a concern for Habitat in the U.S. and all over the world. Metro Denver (Colo.) HFH dedicated its first “green home” in 1997. This house is designed to be energy efficient and environmentally responsible with features such as passive solar heating from south-facing windows, enhanced insulation values and a programmable thermostat. HFH of El Paso (Texas) designs houses with features such as white shingles (to reduce heat absorption) and water-saving plumbing fixtures.

Climate:
Within the United States, climate conditions vary widely. Winter in Duluth, Minnesota, means January highs of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 Celsius) and, in some areas, continuous snow coverage from mid-December to mid-March. To cope with the cold, Habitat houses in Duluth have walls filled with 6 inches of insulation, 16-18 inches of cellulose (recycled paper fibers) in the attic and several feet of insulation surrounding the foundation. Also, water pipes must be laid 6 to 7 feet deep to get below the frost line.

Accessibility:
Throughout the United States, Habitat affiliates are encouraged to build with special attention to wheelchair accessibility for both homeowners and visitors. Greater Birmingham (Ala.) HFH built an “Ability House,” with no-step entrances and interior doorways and bathrooms that are larger than standard. Costs of these special features are minimized when accessibility features are taken into account from the design stage. Currently, Greater Birmingham HFH and other affiliates build all Habitat houses to be accessible.

Attached units:
For some affiliates, especially those in the Northeast and urban areas where land is expensive, building and renovating attached units makes the best use of financial resources. There are environmental benefits also: shared walls contribute to energy conservation by minimizing heat loss or gain. They also eliminate some of the cost of exterior cladding.