Owning or Renting the American Dream

Whether you’re a renter or homeowner, housing is in the spotlight as we observe American Housing Month and National Homeownership Month celebrating the value of homeownership and ways banks and other institutions can help people reach their housing goals.

Census Bureau surveys help complete the U.S. housing picture by viewing it through an economic and lifestyle lens.

Of the 1,022,000 new single-family homes completed in 2022:

• 994,000 had central air-conditioning.
• 92,000 had two bedrooms or less and 490,000 had four bedrooms or more.
• 33,000 had one and one-half bathrooms or less and 362,000 had three or more bathrooms.
• 440,000 had a heat pump. Of these, 435,000 were air-source and 5,000 were ground-source.
• 956,000 were framed in wood and 63,000 were framed using concrete.
• 370,000 had a patio and a porch, while 75,000 had no outdoor features.
• The median size of a completed single-family home was 2,299 square feet.

Many of the nation’s 128.5 million occupied housing units needed repairs in 2021:

• 11.4 million reported water leakage from outside their home.
• 7.2 million had open cracks or holes inside their home.
• 5 million had crumbling or an open crack or hole in their foundation.
• 3.8 million reported mold in their homes in the previous 12 months.
• 2.5 million had no working toilet at some point during the last three months.
• 15.3 million saw signs of mice/rats inside the home in the last 12 months.
• 14.5 million saw signs of cockroaches inside the home in the last 12 months.

The AHS Table Creator allows access to data for selected state and metro areas.

Whether you rent or own, furniture and appliances are necessities. The Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) provides national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, purchases, total operating expenses and sales taxes for U.S. retail businesses. Estimated sales for select housing-related industries in 2021 include:

• Furniture and home furnishings stores – $140.6 billion.
• Electronics and appliance stores – $93.5 billion.
• Building materials and supplies dealers – $417.0 billion.

The Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS) provides national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, purchases, total operating expenses, gross margins, and commissions (for electronic markets, agents, and brokers) for U.S. wholesale businesses. 2021 sales estimates from this survey include:

• Furniture and Home Furnishing Merchant Wholesalers – $135.5 billion.
• Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers – $278.4 billion.

• Hardware, and Plumbing and Heating Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers – $251.4 billion.

The Service Annual Survey (SAS) provides annual nationwide estimates of revenue, expenses and other measures for most traditional service industries. Estimated revenue for employer firms for select housing-related industries for 2021 include:

• Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers – $180.0 billion.
• Consumer Electronics and Appliances Rental – $10.3 billion.
• Home and Garden Equipment and Appliance Repair and Maintenance – $4.0 billion.

Stats for Stories provides additional resources for accessing other housing-related data available from the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau will provide more info at its Exploring Census Data: Housing and Real Estate webinar scheduled for June 29.