Over four million units are located in the Northeast, another four million in the South, and about three million each in the West and the Midwest. The smaller multifamily buildings tend to be found in the South. Figure 1 . Perhaps the single most defining characteristic of multifamily households is that the residents are renters, not owners. Figure 2 .
Multifamily buildings house a higher percentage of minorities than single-family buildings.
A quarter of the black and Hispanic households live in multifamily buildings. The elderly, however, are more likely to live in single-family households. Nevertheless, there are 2.9 million elderly households in multifamily buildings. Energy Use Patterns of energy use in multifamily buildings are different from those in single-family houses. Residents of public housing use the least electricity per household.