Real median home values rose 32 percent, according to new 2005 American Community Survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The largest increase in home values took place in San Diego, where home prices jumped from $249,000 to $567,000 between 2000 and 2005.
"Just about anyone who owns a home or has been in the market for one in the past few years knows first-hand how home values jumped from 2000 to 2005," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. "This is an example of the kind of local data that policymakers can use to assess housing needs and better plan for services such as schools, roads and other community needs."
The American Community Survey (ACS) is designed to as a stopgap to provide timely and updated information about the nation's changing and diverse population every year, so that communities, businesses and individuals don't have to wait once a decade for new Census Bureau demographics and statistics. The next major Census Bureau report won't be available until 2012.
The 2005 ACS data just released includes housing characteristic information such as occupancy, units in structure, year built, rooms, occupants per room, vehicles available, house heating fuel, value, mortgage status, gross rent, selected monthly owner costs and other characteristics. Additional subjects covered include means of transportation to work by workplace geography, geographic mobility by selected characteristics, characteristics of households and families, grandparents and the foreign-born population. Also surveyed are disability characteristics, work status in the past 12 months, occupancy and financial characteristics.
The data is available for nearly 7,000 areas, including all congressional districts and counties, cities and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more. This survey is a first look at key housing information for many communities since Census 2000 -- including 75 of the top 100 fastest growing cities.
Among the highlights of the report is the topic most people are interested in -- median housing values. In the nation's largest cities, some of the highest percent increases in real median home values between 2000 and 2005 were found in San Diego (127.2 percent), Los Angeles (110.2) and New York (79.1).
In the smaller cities, with 65,000 population or more, some of the highest percentage increases in real median home values were found in Boynton Beach, Fla. (120.3 percent); Folsom, Calif. (99.5)1; and Redondo Beach, Calif. (91.7). Among the smallest cities covered in the 2005 ACS data release with populations of 65,000 or more, Newport Beach and Santa Barbara, Calif., were the only two cities with a median home value of a million dollars or more.
More than two-thirds of the nation's total occupied housing units were owner-occupied in 2005, an increase of 4.5 million over the Census 2000 number (69.8 million). This is good news considering that one-third of properties purchased in 2004 and 2005 were by non-occupying homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors. Among the 15 largest cities, Jacksonville, Fla., San Jose, Calif., and Indianapolis, Indiana had high percentages of owner-occupied housing units; and Missouri City, Texas, Boynton Beach, Fla., and Folsom, Calif. had some of the highest percentage of owner-occupied housing units among smaller cities.
The surprise of the survey was that the real median selected monthly owner costs for owners with mortgages increased only 5.0 percent nationally between 2000 and 2005. Though not statistically different from each other, some of the highest increases among the largest cities in real median monthly owner costs were found in Detroit (24.1 percent), Chicago (21.7) and San Francisco (19.6). Decreases of about 10 percent in real median homeownership costs were found in some of the smaller cities such as Bryan, Texas, and Greenville, N.C.
That's not much solace for homeowners who are paying more than 30 percent of their incomes in fast-growing areas such as Southern California, Texas and Colorado, according to The New York Times. Homeowners are spending more than 30 percent of their income in areas such Orange County, California and Clifton, New Jersey. Rents are highest in cities such as Boulder, Colorado, College Station, Texas and Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
Meanwhile, the real median cost of renting rose by about 6.7 percent from 2000 to 2005. Some of the highest real median rent percentage increases among the large cities were found in San Diego (27.2 percent), Detroit (22.5), and Los Angeles (15.9). Among the smallest cities, Redondo Beach, Calif. (21.7), also had increases in real median rent. Real median rent actually decreased in some of the largest cities including San Jose, Calif. (-9.4 percent), and Dallas (-3.0).
To find out how your community compares with the nation, a state or another city, county or congressional district, visit American FactFinder .
Editor's Note: Due to a technical correction of the 2005 ACS data, certain data tables covering income characteristics that were released on August 29, 2006 will be reissued on October 19, 2006. The ACS Public Use Microdata File (PUMS) will be reissued today (October 3, 2006). The technical correction affects a limited number of geographic areas and is within the standard error of all estimates. For more information on the tables and variables affected see
