Hi,
Using CPS data (or I guess technically ASEC data), I am looking to calculate home ownership rates for family householders (FAMREL == 101).
I am using the OWNERSHP variable and counting the number of observations where OWNERSHP == 10 and dividing that by the total number of observations.
I have two questions:
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How should I incorporate ASECFWT when calculating my national home ownership rates for families? I am now creating weighted means of my OWNERSHP rates with ASECFWT.
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When I calculate home ownership rates, both using the weights and not using the weights, my calculated home ownership rates are about 10% higher than the rates reported by FRED. My rates range between 70 and 80%, compare this to the rates between 65% and 70% advertised by FRED.
Please help me calculate these rates!
Best,
Nick Anderson
The homeownership rate data series that I’m finding on FRED reports the proportion of households, rather than families (or family householders) who own their own home. A Household includes all individuals who reside at a given address, regardless of their relation to each other, whereas a family consists of those related to each other by birth, marriage or adoption (see the Census families and households glossary). Households are identified in each IPUMS CPS sample with the variable SERIAL and individual families are enumerated within households using FAMUNIT. While 95%+ of households in the 2024 ASEC consist of either a single individual or a single family (i.e., where all household members are in the same FAMUNIT), some households contain multiple families and/or unrelated individuals. As a result, the national homeownership rate for families will not be the same as the homeownership rate for households.
I would also not expect the homeownership rate for family householders to equal the homeownership rate for families. Each household includes a single householder that is identified with PERNUM = 1. Typically, the householder is someone in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented under, however in the absence of such a person residing at the address, any adult can be identified as the householder. A family householder (identified using PERNUM =1 & FAMREL = 1) is then a type of householder who resides with relatives. However, secondary families that reside with other families in the same household do not include a family householder since only one individual per household can be the householder. Your measure also excludes non-family householders (PERNUM = 1 & FAMREL = 0) who do not reside with any relatives. An analysis of the 2024 ASEC shows that family householders are about 50% more likely to own their own home when compared to those who do not live with any relatives. When including both types, I find that 67% of householders in the 2024 ASEC reported owning their own home.
You can follow the outline below to determine the correct weight to use:
- If you are interested in studying householders (e.g., the percent of family householders who own their own home), then you should use the person-level weight ASECWT.
- The family weight ASECFWT should be used for analyses of families (e.g., the percent of families that own their own home). However, to properly analyze families, you will need to restrict your analysis to a single person per family.
- The household weight ASECWTH should be used for analyses of households (e.g., the percent of households that own their own home). As in the case of analyses of families, you should restrict your analysis to a single person per household (commonly to people with PERNUM = 1).
For incorporating weights into your analysis, I recommend reviewing our data training exercises which provide sample questions and code for producing weighted estimates. We recommend using one of our supported stats packages (Stata, SAS, SPSS, or R) or our online analysis tool for correctly applying weights to your sample.