Homeownership Capital

The homeownership capital measures in the Report Card assess how many of a state's residents own their own home, the average level of wealth accumulated in homes, and the extent to which homeownership is a source of equity for all of the state's residents. Measures of homeownership capital are included in the Report Card because home equity is the single largest source of wealth for most Americans. According to the Census Bureau, home equity accounts for the largest share of net worth in U.S. households, totaling 44.4% of measured net worth.

However, while the primary objective of the Report Card is to measure the value of homes in the form of home equity, no direct measures of home equity exist at the state level. Therefore, the measures included in this grouping are all proxies for both the overall level of home equity and the extent to which different population groups have accumulated home equity. Also, the reader will note that no measure of housing affordability is included here. While we recognize that being able to afford a home is a prerequisite for accumulating home equity, we could find no straightforward measure of homeownership affordability that did not raise more questions than it answered. However, one can assume that affordability is accounted for to some extent by some of the measures included here (especially the various measures of homeownership rate).

Homeownership Rate
Median Value of Home
Homeownership by Race
Homeownership by Income
Homeownership by Gender