New US homeownership measure puts people first

全新美国住房自有率衡量标准：以人为本

An alternative way of calculating the homeownership rate tells us how many individuals own their homes—something the most commonly used metric fails to track. 一种计算住房自有率的替代方法，能够告诉我们究竟有多少个人拥有自己的住房——而这正是目前最常用的衡量指标所无法追踪的。

The homeownership rate in the United States is reported to be 65 percent. But this commonly cited data point on homeownership is actually the owner-occupancy rate, which tells us how many housing units are occupied by an owner. While owner occupancy is an interesting measure, it doesn’t tell us how many people own their home. As an alternative to better reflect the share of adults who are homeowners, we offer the homeowners-to-population ratio, or HPOP, a measure that lends a more nuanced view for important policy considerations and context. Using this new measure, the U.S. homeownership rate is 53 percent. 据报道，美国的住房自有率为 65%。但这个常被引用的数据实际上是“业主自住率”（owner-occupancy rate），它反映的是有多少住房单元是由业主居住的。虽然业主自住率是一个有趣的指标，但它并不能告诉我们有多少人真正拥有自己的住房。为了更好地反映拥有住房的成年人比例，我们提出了一种替代方案——“住房拥有者占人口比例”（Homeowners-to-Population Ratio，简称 HPOP）。该指标为重要的政策考量和背景分析提供了更细致的视角。使用这一新指标，美国的住房自有率实际上为 53%。

To further its mission of pursuing a growing economy and stable financial system that work for all of us, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis works to understand economic conditions in the Ninth Federal Reserve District and beyond. Homeownership trends are a critical component of those conditions. Housing is both the largest expense and the largest source of wealth for many families. Using the HPOP helps us understand housing better in several ways. For example, the HPOP accounts for millions of American adults who would not be identified as either homeowners or renters under the traditional owner-occupancy measure. By including all adults, the HPOP gives us a more accurate understanding of the economic well-being of Americans. 为了履行其追求经济增长和稳定金融体系、造福全民的使命，明尼阿波利斯联邦储备银行致力于了解第九联邦储备区及其他地区的经济状况。住房自有趋势是这些经济状况的关键组成部分。对于许多家庭而言，住房既是最大的支出，也是最大的财富来源。使用 HPOP 有助于我们从多个方面更好地理解住房问题。例如，HPOP 将数百万在传统业主自住率衡量标准下既不被归类为业主也不被归类为租户的美国成年人纳入了考量。通过涵盖所有成年人，HPOP 使我们能够更准确地了解美国人的经济福祉。

Measuring homeownership by the person instead of by the home is particularly important for comparing characteristics of homeowners: by age, by geography, and across time. 以“人”而非以“房”为单位来衡量住房自有率，对于比较不同年龄、不同地理区域以及不同时间段的业主特征尤为重要。

Understanding homeownership measures

理解住房自有率衡量标准

To better understand the difference between the traditional owner-occupancy measure and the HPOP, consider a hypothetical cul-de-sac with five housing units, each of which is home to a separate group of residents: 为了更好地理解传统业主自住率与 HPOP 之间的区别，请设想一个有五套住房的死胡同，每套住房都住着不同的人群：

• Housing unit 1. A couple owns their home. The woman’s parents live with them.
• 住房 1： 一对夫妇拥有该住房，女方的父母与他们同住。
• Housing unit 2. A couple owns their home. Their son, a recent college graduate, lives with them.
• 住房 2： 一对夫妇拥有该住房，他们刚大学毕业的儿子与他们同住。
• Housing unit 3. A man owns his home. A friend lives with him.
• 住房 3： 一名男子拥有该住房，一位朋友与他同住。
• Housing unit 4. A couple owns their home. Their two young children live with them.
• 住房 4： 一对夫妇拥有该住房，他们的两个年幼子女与他们同住。
• Housing unit 5. Three roommates rent their home. The owner lives elsewhere.
• 住房 5： 三名室友租住该房屋，业主住在别处。

As illustrated in Figure 1, these five housing units are home to 14 adults. Because four of these five housing units have their respective owners as residents, the owner-occupancy rate—the measure traditionally viewed as the homeownership rate—on the cul-de-sac is 80 percent. However, because only seven of the 14 adults are actually owners of the homes they live in, the HPOP is much lower, at 50 percent. 如图 1 所示，这五套住房共居住着 14 名成年人。由于这五套住房中有四套的业主本人居住在内，因此该死胡同的业主自住率（传统意义上的住房自有率）为 80%。然而，由于 14 名成年人中只有 7 人是其所居住房屋的实际业主，因此 HPOP 要低得多，仅为 50%。

Calculating the HPOP

计算 HPOP

To calculate the HPOP, we divide the total population of adult homeowners by the total adult population. For this analysis, we use data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). To determine the total population of adults, we exclude anyone under age 18. To identify homeowners, we then look among the adults living in owner-occupied housing. The ACS tags the homeowner within such homes as the “reference person” (or “head”) for their household. We then also include any spouses or unmarried partners of the reference person as homeowners. 计算 HPOP 时，我们将成年业主总数除以成年人口总数。在本次分析中，我们使用了美国普查局“美国社区调查”（ACS）的数据。为了确定成年人口总数，我们排除了所有 18 岁以下的人员。为了识别业主，我们查看了居住在业主自住房屋中的成年人。ACS 将此类房屋中的业主标记为家庭的“参考人”（或“户主”）。随后，我们还将参考人的配偶或未婚伴侣也计入业主范畴。