April 3, 2012

How Much Are Peoples Homes Worth?

FMF was talking about the Million Dollar Home Foreclosures recently.    That got me wondering what percentage of homes in the US are actually worth more than $1 million.  I couldn't find that number exactly but I did find 2009 data from the American Housing Survey (AHS) that told me how many homes are worth $750,000 or more as of 2009.   The answer to that was about 2.8 million.   There were about 76.4 million total owner occupied homes in the report from AHS so the % of homes worth >$750k is roughly 3.7% of the total.  

Of course that data is now 3 years old, but its the freshest Census data currently available.   The 2011 AHS was delayed due to budget issues.  Still any data we get is going to be a moving target.    I think 2009 is good enough for my curiosity.   I can assume that home values have likely dropped across the board, but the % of homes in the various buckets is likely similar.

Here's all the data in table format :


Value # x 1000 % of total
Less than $10,000   1,696 2.2%
$10,000 to $19,999   1,311 1.7%
$20,000 to $29,999   1,073 1.4%
$30,000 to $39,999   1,187 1.6%
$40,000 to $59,999   3,155 4.1%
$60,000 to $79,999   5,261 6.9%
$80,000 to $99,999   6,002 7.9%
$100,000 to $119,999   4,980 6.5%
$120,000 to $149,999   7,629 10.0%
$150,000 to $199,999   11,141 14.6%
$200,000 to $299,999   13,494 17.7%
$300,000 to $399,999   7,924 10.4%
$400,000 to $499,999   4,200 5.5%
$500,000 to $749,999   4,577 6.0%
$750,000 or more  2,798 3.7%
TOTAL 76,428 100%

The AHS report says the median value was $170,000 as of 2009.

Graphically the distribution of home values looks like this :
(click image for larger version)


I also then grouped the home values into 4 major price buckets and heres how that looks :
(click image for larger version)

My home is currently smack dab in the middle in the $150,000 to $199,999 bucket.  

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