Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Rental Units are Bigger Too

[Update: these data are only for single-family detached units, so my initial worry about the Davis result may still be correct]

From the American Housing Survey, median dwelling size for renters in 1985 and 2005:

1985 2005

Renter 1245 1343
Owner 1712 1856

In case you are wondering, this means ratio of the median size of rental dwellings to the median size of owner dwellings has been essentially flat for 20 years. On the other hand, land area for detached rental housing has dropped around 20 percent, while for detached owner housing it has increased a bit.

Still, this makes the result from Davis, et al. even stronger than I thought. It also told me that before I open my big mouth about something, I should check the data.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

David lindahl scam reports that the most common way to buy a property with no money down is to use owner financing. This occurs when the current owner agrees to finance either all or some part of the purchase price, instead of getting the cash now.
You’ll be surprised how many people own their properties free and clear, and are willing to finance the entire amount or a good portion of the mortgage. Usually, though, you will be getting secondary financing from the owner. That means you will get the majority of the money from another source, like a bank, and the seller will give you the rest in the form of a second mortgage.