Out of the 1,352,332 owner-occupied homes in Washington, D.C., 1,069,934 of those homes, or 79.118 percent, come with a mortgage, according to LawnStarter’s latest report. In comparison to the 100 largest Metro areas in the U.S. in 2015, Washington, D.C. ranked as the Metro area with the highest share of homes with mortgages.
In response to the data, Redfin real estate agent Steven Centrella released the following statement to LawnStarter:
"D.C. is not a large market for retirees or downsizers who may be more likely to own their homes outright, and while there are lifetime Washingtonians, of course, a large percentage of the home-buying population has moved here from somewhere else for job and educational opportunities. Many of these residents will not live in D.C. forever and will purchase a home without the intention of owning it for 30 or more years."
LawnStarter’s latest report used data from the Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey. With the data, the 14 most mortgaged Metros in the U.S. are listed below from most mortgaged to least:
- Washington, D.C. (79.118 percent)
- Denver, Colorado (76.102 percent)
- Raleigh, North Carolina (75.472 percent)
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California (74.88 percent)
- Colorado Springs, Colorado (74.833 percent)
- Provo-Orem, Utah (73.777 percent)
- Atlanta, Georgia (73.609 percent)
- Seattle, Washington (73.37 percent)
- Indianapolis, Indiana (72.815 percent)
- Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virginia (72.805 percent)
- San Francisco, California (72.619 percent)
- Portland, Oregon (72.453 percent)
- Sacramento, California (72.44 percent)
- Salt Lake City, Utah (72.417 percent)