More Californians Are Living Mortgage-Free – NMP
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More Californians Are Living Mortgage-Free

Oct 03, 2017
A new study of census data has determined that two million Californians, or 29 percent of the state’s owner-occupied residences, were mortgage-free as of last year, up from 23 percent one decade earlier

A new study of census data has determined that two million Californians, or 29 percent of the state’s owner-occupied residences, were mortgage-free as of last year, up from 23 percent one decade earlier.
 
According to a San Jose Mercury News report, the number of California homeowners with mortgages fell by 498,000, or 20 percent, to 4.93 million since 2006. Orange County had fastest growing number of debt-free homeowners: 168,000, a 28 percent spike over the last 10 years. Homes in that market carried a median value of $603,100 in 2016.
 
Nonetheless, California trails the national average of 37 percent of all homeowners living mortgage-free. And it is far behind West Virginia, which leads the nation 52 percent of its owner-occupied homes mortgage-free. Of course, there is a different in housing values between those states: the median value of West Virginia’s mortgage-less homes was $90,000 in 2016.
 
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Phil Hall
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Oct 03, 2017
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