TABLE 83.

PERCENTAGE OF NATIVE WHITE HOME OWNERS TO ALL OCCUPANTS, CLASSIFIED BY PARENT NATIVITY, IN CITIES WITH A POPULATION

This fact is not due, however, to a racial disinclination of the American of native stock toward the acquisition of property, but to the fact that the value of a house is beyond the reach of the majority of householders. The proof will be found in Table 84:

TABLE 84.

PERCENTAGES OF HOME OWNERS CLASSIFIED BY VALUE OF HOMES, 1890.*

More than one half of all homes in the United States were valued in 1890 at $5000 and over; in cities with a population of 100,000 and over the proportion of homes of the same value was nearly three fourths.

The relative number of home owners decreased with the growth of the density of population and the resulting ■ Farms and Homes, XI. Census, Table 73, p. 204.

Ibid., Table 39, p. 87

increase of the value of real estate, as shown in Table 85, where all States and Territories are divided into two areas:

I. With ratio of home owners to total families above the average for the United States;

II. With ratio of home owners to total families below the average for the United States.

TABLE 85.

HOME OWNERSHIP AND VALUE OF REAL ESTATE IN AREAS WITH RATIO OF HOME OWNERS TO TOTAL FAMILIES ABOVE (I) AND BELOW (II)

To be sure, some of the homes were incumbered (three eighths of all homes in cities with a population of 100,000 and over, and less in smaller cities and towns"), but the average incumbrance in the United States covered only 37.7 per cent of the value.3 The average equity of the owner ranged from $3200 in cities with a population of 100,000 and over, down to $1400 in settlements of less than 8000 inhabitants.4

Age is an important factor in home ownership; under the age of forty-five the majority were tenants (see Diagram XVII). This was the rule in every section of the country, in those where the percentage of foreign-born was high, as well as in those where it was low. The percentage of homeowners increases with advancing years, and it is only in old age that a majority become home-owners. It takes a lifetime of savings to acquire a home. Now it must be remembered that most of the immigrants are under the Farms and Homes, XI. Census, Table 16, p. 42.

Ibid., Table 14, P.34.

Ibid., Tables 104-106, pp. 421-428.

s Ibid., p. 224, Diagram 32.

Ibid., Table 38, pp. 83-86.

DIAGRAM XVII. PER CENT RATIO OF HOME OWNERS AND TENANTS TO

age of forty-five on arrival. It was found in 1890, when immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was insignificant, that "by far the principal portion of the foreignborn owners of farms and homes have been in this country fifteen years and over. Of all industrial workers from Southern and Eastern Europe, however, who were covered by the investigation of the Immigration Commission, only from 0.9 per cent (Roumanians) to 18.2 per cent (Russian Jews) had been in the United States fifteen years or over.2 According to the standard set by the immigrants from North* Farms and Homes, XI. Census, p. 163.

Jenks and Lauck, loc. cit., p. 477.

ALL HOME FAMILIES, CLASSIFIED BY AGE PERIODS AND BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, 1890.

ern and Western Europe, the overwhelming majority of the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe had not been long enough in the United States to have raised sufficient funds for buying real estate.

The inference drawn from the statistics of home ownership in 1890 by the authors of the census report "is that home tenancy is increasing in the whole country as the urban population becomes numerically a more important element of the population." The old American standard which found its expression in the one-family residence retreats before the apartment house. This tendency asserts itself even among the well-to-do who could afford to buy a home for the rental they pay for a fashionable apartment. The rate of the change can be observed in a city like Washington, which has but a small foreign population. A count of the houses and apartments advertised in the Washington Star on the last Saturday in July, 1900 and 1910, for rent to white tenants brought the following results:

TABLE 86.

NUMBER OF HOUSES AND APARTMENTS ADVERTISED FOR RENT TO
WHITE TENANTS IN WASHINGTON, D. C., ON THE LAST
SATURDAY IN JULY, 1900 AND 1910.

The number of apartment houses which advertised apartments for rent increased ninefold within ten years, while the number of one-family houses increased only by one third.

• Farms and Homes, XI. Census, p. 54.

The ratio of the foreign-born and their children to the population of Washington, D. C., was only 20.6 per cent in 1900 and 21 per cent in 1910. XIII. Census, vol. i, p. 150.