Corrected: Oregon Legislature: In Every Republican House and Senate District Renters Were More Likely than Home Owners to Have Children Less than Age Six.

Correction: 
In text below I corrected percentage of Democratic held districts where renter HH were more likely than home owners to have child below age of 18 to read 54%, instead my original 72%; data in linked tables remains accurate.
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I recently posted (HERE) that in Oregon renters were 56% more likely than home owners to have children below the age of 6. 

That got me thinking, I wonder if there were any differences between state legislative districts held by Republicans and Democrats?  

Well, it turns out that there were differences, but they weren't what most people (including me) likely expected....

Children Under Age Six
In EVERY Republican Held District Renters Were More Likely than Home Owners to Have a Child Less than Age Six

It turns out that in EVERY Republican legislative district (44 out of 44) it was more likely that renter households had children less than age 6 when compared to home owners.  

For Democratic held districts, renters were more likely that home owner households to have a child less than age six 72% of the time (33 out of 46 districts). 

Combined, in 77 of the 90 legislative districts (86%) it was more likely that renter households would include a child less than age 6 vs home owner households.  

All Children Less than 18

When looking at all children under 18, for Republican held districts renters were more likely than home owners to have a child less than eighteen 86% of the time ( 38 of 44). 

However in Democratic held districts, renters were more likely than home owners to have a child only 54% of the time ( 25 out of 46 districts). 

Combined, in 63 of the 90 districts (70%) it was more likely that renter households would include a child less than 18 vs. home owner households. 

TABLES
The table I constructed HERE provides a summary for each chamber and for the combined chambers, as well as a break out by party.

The legal sized PDF table I constructed HERE has the relevant percentages for each Oregon legislative district. The table is sorted by numerical order of Senate and House seats and includes the member name and party.

The bookmark HERE will take you to the Census 2010 data table for Oregon Legislative Districts (HCT 11) that I used to do my calculations. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

First Guest Post, Jon Gail: Time to Tackle the Root Cause.

Notes: 

As I said in June HERE, I was looking to add housing related guest posts from others, so long as they weren't rants etc. 

Today I am pleased to add the first guest post from Jon Gail. Jon is a long time respected colleague who previously served as the SF bond program manager for the State of Oregon and also as a Community Outreach and Information Rep. for the Portland Housing Bureau. After leaving the agency this summer he started First HomeAdvisor.com, a new website focused on connecting first-time home buyers to related federal, state and local home buying programs. Jon is also a long time board member for the African American Alliance for Homeownership/AAAH.

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Oregon Housing Blog Guest Post: 

Time to Tackle the Root Cause

Jon Gail, First HomeAdvisor.com

The recent article in the Oregonian by Hannah Nikole-Jones and research by Tom Cusack show that despite population growth fewer black households in Portland own homes in 2010 than owned homes in 2000.   This fact is disturbing especially when you consider that a lot of people in the housing industry, including myself, have invested significant time and resources attempting to increase the African American home ownership rates in Portland over the past decade.   Clearly our efforts failed and a new approach is desperately needed.
 

The fundamental flaw in our approach is that we are not tackling the root cause of the problem.  In order to afford to buy and maintain a home in Portland, most of us require a stable and relatively high paying job or perhaps two decent paying jobs.   To get a high paying or at least a decent paying job, one needs to have the necessary certifications, skills, experience and opportunity to be hired for these better paying jobs.    
 

Therefore, in order to eventually raise the home ownership rates for African Americans in Portland, the goals first need to be to lower the unemployment rates, increase the household incomes, lower the drop-out rates, increase the levels of educational attainment, and eliminate the economic and other barriers that African Americans face when attempting to prepare for, get and keep a family wage job. 
 

We also need to better align our social support systems of housing, welfare, insurance, and education to enhance and develop the long-term self-sufficiency and employment opportunities for African American households.  Improved collaboration is needed among our social support agencies and systems to help African American households to not to just survive, but to thrive in Portland. 
 

While addressing the root cause of the problem may seem daunting, it is the only way we are going to have a chance to make a positive change to these disturbing disparities.  It is time to start a fresh new approach to closing the African American home ownership rate gap by helping African Americans secure good paying jobs and earn a decent living.  Once we do that, improved home ownership rates will follow.

Originally published on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Portland Tribune Has City of Portland African American Drop in Home Ownership Rate Story.

Story from Steve Law is HERE in printer ready format.

Story references Census data I recently posted [post is HERE] and a quote from interview with me. Quotes from Economic Fairness Oregon, Realty Trust broker, Portland Housing Center, and African American home owners helped by PHC are also included in the story.

NOTE: African American Alliance for Home Ownership will have their annual home ownership fair in Portland on October 29th at Emanuel Hospital. Details HERE. 

Fair includes exhibits/presence of multiple lenders, agencies, and non profits. Noticed that this years Fair will include education session on first time home buyers facilitated by Jon Gail, formerly at Portland Housing Bureau, and now operator of new web based education/referral site for first time home buyers, First Home Advisor. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Who Knew? In 2010, Among 8 Largest Cities in Portland Metro in Oregon, Lake Oswego Had Highest Minority Home Ownership Rankings.

I have prepared a Census 2010 sourced table that shows  home ownership rate data, including minority home ownership rate data and gaps, for the 8 Oregon cities in the jurisdiction of Metro with 10,000 or more total households. 

The two page table also includes rankings from best to worst (1 to 8) on 12 different minority home ownership metrics and best to worst rankings on 2 other metrics for overall homeownership rate and the white, non Hispanic home ownership rate.


Finally in the far left hand column on the first page the total counts of home owners and home ownership rates for all 25 cities in Metro's jurisdiction are shown.

The table is HERE and it has some surprises, especially with rankings found on page 2:

1. On 12 different metrics of minority home ownership, Lake Oswego has the highest/best ranking on 8 of those metrics.
2. Using those same 12 minority home ownership metrics, Tualatin was ranked the lowest/worst on 5 of these metrics.
3. Portland does not rank the highest or the lowest in any of the 12 minority home ownership metrics. It did have the 2nd lowest/best all minority home ownership rate gap.
4. Beaverton is ranked the lowest on 3 of the 12 minority home ownership metrics. And, among these 8 Portland metro cities, it also had the lowest overall home ownership rate, and the lowest white non Hispanic home ownership rate. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Drops 3 Ranks in Home Ownership Rates to 46th; Was One of Only 12 States to Add More Rental HH's than Homeowner HH's.

I have prepared a new 4 page legal sized PDF table file HERE that includes state level rental and home ownership household counts and changes, as well as home ownership rate changes, for 2000-2010.

Some observations: (50 States + District of Columbia and Puerto Rico).

1. Oregon was only 1 of 12 states where the increase in the number of rental households exceeded the increase in the number of home owner households. 
2. In Oregon rental households grew at a rate DOUBLE the rate of increase in home owner households (20.5% vs. 10.2%). [Nationally, renter households also grew at a higher rate than home owner households (14.2% vs 8.8%)]
   
3.  For these 52 areas, the overall home ownership rate decline was 1.6%; Oregon's home ownership rate decline was 3.2%, twice as much as the national decline. Only 8 states had a HIGHER rate of home ownership rate decline than Oregon from 2000-2010 [South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Idaho, and Nevada].
4. Oregon's home ownership rate ranking dropped from 43rd to 46th, meaning that in 2010 only 5 states +DC had LOWER home ownership rates [Rhode Island, Nevada, Hawaii, California, New York, and the District of Columbia].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Map Boundaries for 3,800+ Oregon Census 2010 Geographies Now Posted in Google Fusion.

I have created Google Fusion geographic files from SHAPEFILES for select Oregon Census 2010 geographies:

• Census Tracts, 
• Block Groups, 
• Places, and 
• Counties

These geographic data files can be displayed as boundary maps within Google Fusion. (Once file is open in Google Fusion, simply select visualize, and then map from the pull down menus to see a map with the boundaries for that file). 

MORE powerfully, these geographic files can also be merged with  topical files you upload to Google Fusion to create combined tables, IF the geographic and topical data file have a common geo field. Once merged the combined boundaries and topical data can then be mapped from within Google Fusion, and the resulting map can be embedded in web pages or a link can be posted/sent to others. 

Portland Block Group Excerpt

Each linked Google Fusion boundary file below shows the number of geographic boundaries it contains, and a link to where the file can be viewed on Google Fusion (A Google account is likely required to view/work with the Google Fusion files).

Census Tracts [834 geographies].

Census Block Groups [2,634 geographies].

Census Places [377 geographies].

Counties [36 geographies].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Census 2010: Metro Areas Above 2 Million; Portland's Ranks 25th out of 30 On Racial/Ethnic Diversity Index.

Metro area population data has now been released for Census 2010. 

As another Fair Housing Month project, I constructed the legal sized table HERE that shows my calculation of the diversity index and rankings of the 30 Metro areas with population above 2 million. [ A racial and ethnic diversity index represents the probability that two people chosen at random in a geographic area would be of a different race or ethnicity (on a 0-100 scale)].

Within metro areas with more than 2 million population the Portland metro ranked 25th out of 30th.  

St. Louis, Minneapolis, San Juan, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh metro areas had lower Census 2010 Diversity Index scores than the Portland metro area. 

Tables also include minority/Hispanic %'s and housing unit counts and vacancy rates for these 30 metro areas.  (I didn't show this ranking but the Portland metro vacancy rate was the 3rd lowest in these 30 large metro areas, trailing only Los Angeles, and Minneapolis).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.