How Occupations Shape Homeownership Rates
Higher-income careers still lead in homeownership, but local affordability is reshaping who can buy, with many metro areas seeing shifts over the past decade.
NEW YORK — Homeownership still varies widely by occupation, but the bigger dividing line is often affordability at the local level rather than salary alone.
Newly released National Association of Realtors® (NAR) data found that management and business workers remain the most likely to own homes nationally. Service workers have the lowest homeownership rates, even though they have also posted the biggest gain in the past decade. In more than 60% of metro areas, the occupation most likely to own a home has changed since 2014, showing how local housing costs and job markets are reshaping who can buy.
"It really comes down to affordability," NAR senior economist Nadia Evangelou told Realtor.com. "You can be an engineer earning a strong salary, but if you’re in a high-cost market, that income may not be enough. In more affordable markets, even lower-paying jobs can have higher homeownership rates."
Among executive, management, and financial employees, homeownership rates held steady at 72.2% nationally, just under 2014's 72.4%. Meanwhile, the number of educators who own their own homes declined from 2014's 68% to 67.3%. Those in technical professions, including computer scientists, engineers and other STEM fields had the highest rates of homeownership at 67.2%, but that was down from 2014's 69.2%.
Homeownership rates among sales and real estate professionals rose from 2014’s 60.8% to 63.3% today, and rates among health care workers also increased from 61.8% to 62.2%.
NAR also found that electricians, carpenters and other skilled trades workers report a 62% homeownership rate, slightly higher than the 61.2% recorded in 2014. But among transportation workers that rate fell from 59.3% to 58.1%.
"Nationally, the same occupations still lead, but in more than 60% of metro areas, the top homeowning occupation is different than it was a decade ago," Evangelou said.
She also noted that areas with strong homeownership rates, such as parts of Florida, the South and the Midwest, have prices that are more in line with local incomes.
"That's what allows a broader range of workers, not just top earners, to actually buy a home," she explained.
Source: Realtor (03/26) Taylor, Julie
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