In the October 2024 edition of At A Glance, the Housing Finance Policy Center’s reference guide for mortgage and housing data, the cashout share of refinances has decreased to the lowest share since October 2021, prepayment rates and refinance shares of all loans are increasing, particularly among Ginnie loans and year-over-year house price appreciation has slowed over 2024. This month features a new analysis of housing quality, home improvement jobs and mobility from the recently released 2023 American Housing Survey.
Findings from the 2023 American Housing Survey
The American Housing Survey (AHS) is a triennial survey sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the US Census Bureau. The AHS provides information about US housing stock and condition, financing and maintenance of homes and the demographics of residents.
Housing Quality
Households most likely to live in inadequate housing are those with a Black or Latino household head, low income, or in a rural area. The AHS considers the presence of basic utilities like plumbing, heating and electrical systems, as well at structural deficiencies when determining adequacy.
Housing quality is very different across incomes. Households with incomes under $30,000 are about twice as likely as households with incomes over $100,000 to be too cold for over 24 hours, report that their water is unsafe for drinking or cooking, have poor air quality, have severe structural problems like a floor, wall or roof in need of repairs, and have rooms without electrical outlets.
Latino households are more than three times as likely as white households to be overcrowded and more than twice as likely to report unsafe drinking water. Black households are three times as likely as white households to report poor air quality and nearly twice as likely to not have an electrical outlet in every room.
Homes outside of metro areas are more likely to have roofs, floors or walls in need of repairs and to not have an electrical outlet in every room. However, households in metro areas are more likely to be overcrowded and have poor air quality or unsafe water.
Home Improvement Jobs
Although Black and Latino households are more likely than White households to live in inadequate housing and face a host of housing issues, Black and Latino homeowners were less likely to make home improvements than White homeowners in 2022-23. The same is true of lower-income homeowners. This could be due in part to higher relative costs to income of making improvements for homeowners of color and low-income homeowners. This is despite Black and Latino homeowners spending slightly less than White homeowners and homeowners with lower incomes spending significantly less compared to those with higher incomes on home improvements. The median homeowner making $30,000 or less who made home improvements in 2021 or 2022 spent 16.3 percent of their annual income on improvement jobs per year. In contrast, homeowners with incomes over $100,000 spent only 2.5 percent of their annual income.
For 75.7 percent of improvement jobs, homeowners dipped into their savings. A significantly smaller share used insurance (3.9 percent) or extracted home equity through Home Equity Loans (HEL) (3.1 percent), or a cash-out refinance, and these methods were often used to fund larger jobs.
Mobility Patterns
Overall, 11.6 percent or 2.67 million fewer households moved in 2022-23 than in 2020-21. Renters finding another place to rent make up the highest share of movers, 48 percent in 2022-23. Relative to movers in 2020-2021, the volume of renters finding a new home in in 2022-23 decreased by 11.6 percent and homeowner moving volume decreased by 13.4 percent. Compared to previous years, households that moved in 2022-23 were more likely to be forced to move and to move for their job, family or to form a household. Recent movers were less likely to move to find a better home or for a change in their household than movers in 2021-2022.
Households that moved in 2022 and 2023 were more likely to experience elevated housing costs and less likely to have lower costs after moving than households that moved in previous years. Households of color that moved recently were more likely to experience increased housing costs than white households that moved in the same years. Homeowners and renters were similarly likely to experience higher housing costs after moving in 2022 and 2023, and these likelihoods are elevated compared to previous years.
