The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-01-05
HOME OWNERSHIP IN NORTH
CAROLINA

In a study of home ownership IN NOfth
Carolina the University News Letter pre-
SCENTS figures to show that 59.1 per cent Ct
the white families of Henderson county
are home owners and that Alb per cent o.
negro families own their own homes The
percentage of white home owners IN the
State is 1876 and the percentage of negro
home owners is PSI and the total percent
age of home owners of both races IN the
State is 44.5. Henderson county is above
the State average in the three tables, as
the total percentage Of home owners in this
county is 58.5.
Dr. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., gives this summary
of conditions in the State with reference to
home ownership in the News Letter re-
ferred to:
There arc approximately six hundred and forty
four thousand families in North Carolina, town
and country white and negro, or so IN 1880 Less
than half Of all families in the state lives in homes
of their own 44.5 per cent to be exact. The re-
manning 55.5 per cent are tenants. The homes in
which they live are owned by someone else. In
fact, many homes occupied by people classed as
owners are not owned outright, but encountered
with debt Probably half of all homes occupied hy|
owners. are mortgaged or otherwise encumbered
with debt. The exact ratio is not known. But it is
probable that not more than one-fourth of all fam
lilies in North Carolina live in homes which theE
own outright.
There are nearly three hundred thousand rural
farm families in the state. BY this meant FAINT
lies who live on farms outside of towns. Slightly
less than half of these live in homes which they
own. The exact ratio is 1873 per cent The wides!
difference in home ownership by races is found in
this division of our population For the rural farm
families 573 per cent of whites own their homes,
while for negroes the ratio is only 23S per cent.
It is in this group that the white home ownership
ratio is the highest and negro home ownership
ratio is the lowest.
There are approximately one hundred and eighty
thousand urban families in the state. By urban is
meant places above twenty-five hundred inhabi-
tants Of all families cassed urban, 37.4 per
cent live in homes which they own For the whites
the ratio is 416 per cent. while for negroes the
ratio is 2S2 per cent. The white home ownership
ratio is lowest in the urban population, while the
negro home ownership ratio is somewhat higher
in the larger towns than the farm.
There are nearly one hundred and sixty-five
thousand families in the state who live IN towns
below twenty-five hundred inhabitants and outside
the corporate limits of towns and cities but who do
not live on farms. These are called the rural nor
farm population Of all such families AIS per cent
live in homes which they own.
Now here is an outstanding fact: the ratio OF
rural non-farm whites who own their homes IS
421 per cent. while the ratio for the negroes is
1873 per cent only slightly below the white
ratio 1t appears that negroes have better chance
to rise into home ownership in the small towns and
in the suburbs of towns and cities than either on
farms or in cities.
For the white population the highest ratio of
home ownership is on the farm. The ratios of home
ownership for urban whites and rural non-farrn
whites are approximately the same. Possibly the
main reason why the white home ownership rati"
in our small towns and suburbs IS not higher 5
that large part of textile industry is located
in small towns and textile mill villages. Not many
textile mill families own their homes.
Dare county leads the state in per cent of all
fankAesswho live in homes which they own. In the
case of Dare the ratios for whites and negroes are
almost exactly the same.
The lowest ratio of home ownership in the state
is in Greene county where only 221 per cent OF
all families, town and country, white and negro
own theirhomes Farm tenancy is the explanation
for Greene county as it is for many counties tina;
rank low in home ownership.
Of the twenty-five counties that rank highest II
home-ownefship ratios all but one are either in tn