Three Housing Markets

With millions of Americans underwater on their mortgage, the nation's housing market has been split into three distinct segments: homeowners with mortgages or loans on their property--many of them underwater, renters, and homeowners who own their home free and clear.

According to the 2010 census, the 45 percent plurality of the nation's 117 million households are homeowners with a mortgage or loan on their property. Another 35 percent are renters, and 20 percent are homeowners who own their home free and clear. These segments vary in size by state.

Homeowners with mortgages In eight states, more than half of households are homeowners with mortgages or loans on their home. Utah ranks number one in this category, with 54 percent of the state's households headed by homeowners with a mortgage. The other states in which the majority of households are homeowners with mortgages are Maryland, Minnesota, Delaware, New Hampshire, Colorado, Indiana, and Virginia. The state with the smallest percentage of encumbered households is New York, at 36 percent.

Renters New York tops the list in the percentage of households that rent. The 47 percent plurality of households in New York are renters--most of them in the New York metropolitan area. The only other states in which renters outnumber the other two categories (homeowners with and homeowners without a mortgage) are California (44 percent) and Hawaii (42 percent). West Virginia has the fewest renter households, at 27 percent.

Homeowners free and clear West Virginia is the state with the largest percentage of homeowners who own their home free and clear, at 35 percent. Other states in which at least one in four households are homeowners without mortgages are: Mississippi, North Dakota, Louisiana, South Dakota, Montana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Alabama, and Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Iowa. Not exactly the nation's hot spots.

Here is the distribution of households by homeownership and mortgage status for all 50 states and the District of Columbia...

	with	no
	mort	mort	rent
U.S. total	45.4	19.7	34.9
Alabama	44.2	25.5	30.3
Alaska	43.4	19.7	36.9
Arizona	47.6	18.4	34.0
Arkansas	40.9	26.0	33.0
California	43.5	12.5	44.1
Colorado	50.9	14.6	34.5
Connecticut	49.7	17.8	32.5
Delaware	51.7	20.3	27.9
DC	33.8	8.2	58.0
Florida	45.1	22.2	32.6
Georgia	48.9	16.8	34.3
Hawaii	40.8	16.9	42.3
Idaho	49.5	20.4	30.1
Illinois	48.3	19.1	32.5
Indiana	50.3	19.5	30.1
Iowa	47.0	25.1	27.9
Kansas	45.2	22.5	32.2
Kentucky	44.0	24.7	31.3
Louisiana	39.8	27.5	32.8
Maine	47.4	23.9	28.7
Maryland	53.2	14.3	32.5
Massachusetts	46.2	16.1	37.7
Michigan	49.6	22.5	27.9
Minnesota	53.2	19.9	27.0
Mississippi	40.7	28.9	30.4
Missouri	47.1	21.7	31.2
Montana	41.8	26.2	32.0
Nebraska	44.6	22.6	32.8
Nevada	46.2	12.6	41.2
New Hamp	51.4	19.5	29.0
New Jersey	47.7	17.7	34.6
New Mexico	42.7	25.8	31.5
New York	35.7	17.6	46.7
N. Carolina	46.5	20.2	33.3
North Dakota	37.3	28.1	34.6
Ohio	47.3	20.3	32.4
Oklahoma	41.9	25.4	32.8
Oregon	44.6	17.5	37.8
Pennsylvania	45.2	24.4	30.4
Rhode Island	44.8	15.9	39.3
S. Carolina	45.8	23.5	30.7
South Dakota	41.5	26.6	31.9
Tennessee	44.9	23.3	31.8
Texas	41.8	21.9	36.3
Utah	53.8	16.7	29.6
Vermont	48.2	22.5	29.3
Virginia	50.2	17.0	32.8
Washington	47.5	16.4	36.1
West Virginia	38.4	35.0	26.6
Wisconsin	47.5	20.6	31.9
Wyoming	44.0	25.3	30.8

Source: 2010 Census