Ancestry Uncovers Members of Armed Services Among Least Likely to Own Homes, While Fire Fighters Are More Likely to Than Lawyers and Judges

The following News Release is from MarketWired:

New Analysis From Ancestry Reveals Surprising Connections Between Occupation and Home Ownership Today and Since 1900

PROVO, UT–(Marketwired – October 15, 2014) – Members of the armed services are among the least likely to own a home in the United States, according to a new analysis by Ancestry, the world’s largest online family history resource. Ancestry recently analyzed 112 years of U.S. Federal Census data to better understand the connection between occupation and home ownership across the nation over the last century. As of 2012, optometrists have the clearest line of sight to home ownership at 90%, while dancers and dance instructors have the lowest home ownership rate at just 23%.

Occupation has had a major impact on home ownership rates since 1900. While the typical size of a profession’s paycheck is an important factor in the rankings, it’s not the only one. There are many instances of a profession having a higher rate of home ownership than another that typically pays more. Some interesting findings from 2012:
Public service often pays off in terms of home ownership rates, except if you are in the armed forces. Fire fighters ranked #7 at 84%, and police officers and detectives #12 at 79%, compared to lawyers and judges who ranked #20 at 78%. Teachers were higher than economists (#45 at 74% versus #97, 64%).

Janitors and sextons had a rate about double that of waiters and waitresses (54% versus 27%).

It turns out that all artists are not starving. Sixty-three percent of artists and art teachers own homes, which is almost twice as high as dancers and dance teachers, which have the lowest rate of home ownership among any profession. Higher rates of home ownership were also seen among musicians and music teachers (62%), entertainers (57%) and authors (63%).

Some skilled professions that include many unionized workers had fairly high rates of home ownership, such as electricians at 73%, plumbers at 70% and power station operators at 87%.

Sixty-two (62) percent of editors and reporters owned homes in 2012, which is higher than almost every other analyzed decade.
Home ownership rates were at just 32% in 1900 and have doubled since then, but nearly all that growth came by 1960. “This kind of historical context is extremely valuable information for people researching their family history,” said Todd Godfrey, Head of Global Content at Ancestry. “Home ownership, occupation, and location are often key bits of information that can help bring the stories of our ancestors to life and greater illumination to the times in which they lived.”

With the stability of the housing market and the economy fluctuating drastically in recent years, occupations with specialized skills and heavy ties to the community fared the best. According to the analysis by Ancestry, top occupations for home ownership in the United States for 2012 are as follows:

• Optometrists: 90%
• Toolmakers and Die Makers/Setters: 88%
• Dentists: 87%
• Power Station Operators: 87%
• Forgemen and Hammermen: 84%
• Inspectors: 84%
• Firemen: 84%
• Locomotive Engineers: 84%
• Airplane Pilots and Navigators: 83%
• Farmers: 81%

“Firemen, dentists and farmers all play integral roles in their local community, so perhaps the need to root in the communities they serve has played a role in home ownership,” Godfrey said. “Firefighters have a deep love for the community they serve, farmers are tied to the land and optometrists and dentists have spent their careers building a clientele list tied to the community. It could also be a case of raising their families in the same homes they were raised in and their parents before them.”

Lower Rates of Home Ownership
From a list of nearly 200 occupations, the rate of home ownership in 2012 is as low as 23% for certain job types. While the professions with the very highest rate of home ownership weren’t necessarily those with the biggest paychecks, the majority of the professions with the worst rates of home ownership have a mean hourly wage of $13 or less. Job stability and job security also played a large role in how likely those in a given profession were to own a home.

As expected, many of the lowest ranking occupations don’t require higher education including cleaners, waiters, counter workers and cashiers–and have lower job stability. Though surprising at first, members of the armed forces are less likely to own a home due to ability/requirement to live on base, possible deployment or the average age skewing younger. The following are occupations with the lowest rate of home ownership in 2012:

• Dancers and Dance Teachers: 23%
• Motion Picture Projectionists: 27%
• Waiters and Waitresses: 27%
• Counter and Fountain Workers: 28%
• Members of the Armed Forces: 33%
• Service Workers (except private households): 34%
• Bartenders: 35%
• Charwomen and Cleaners: 35%
• Cashiers: 36%
• Cooks (except private households): 36%

Home ownership has been the dream of working men and women in the United States from the nation’s founding. For people from tool makers to optometrists to dancers, home ownership continues to be part of the American dream. To learn more about the Ancestry analysis of home ownership and occupation, visit http://ancstry.me/1ywaIkB. Or, visit www.ancestry.com and sign up for a 14-day free trial to learn more about the working men and women in your family.

Methodology: Statistics were compiled using Census microdata obtained from ipums.org at the University of Minnesota Population Center. The microdata are records containing the characteristics of individuals compiled from a representative sample of Census forms. Only heads of households were included in the analysis. Occupations were categorized into 197 categories classified by the U.S. Federal Census Bureau in 1950 and standardized by IPUMS for all other census years. Home ownership is defined as owning or having a mortgage on the residence as opposed to renting it. Occupations with an inadequate sample size in the year reviewed for any given decade were dropped from the analysis for that year. Ancestry.com continues to partner with the Minnesota Population Center in sharing historical census data and standardization methods to benefit both academic researchers and Ancestry’s customers.

Link to the News Release.