Housing Status, Housing Expenditures, and Satisfaction with Housing Quality

Abstract

This paper is an investigation of the relationship between monthly housing expenditures and satisfaction with quality of housing among renters, owners with mortgages, and owners with no mortgages. The sample includes 592 Iowa husband-and-wife families in the age range from 18 to 60. The data are from a systematic random sample collected from 13 small cities during 1975 and 1976. The analyses include correlation and regression.

Housing expenditures are positively related to family size, income, and education. The monthly housing expenditures for the renter with average characteristics is $159.91; for the owner with no mortgage, $95.42; for owners with a mortgage, $206.59. Satisfaction with housing quality is positively related to family size, age, education and housing expenditures. Renters are less satisfied with housing quality than are either owners with a mortgage or owners with a paid-off mortgage. However, for renters, the satisfaction increases as a function of expenditures at a faster rate than it does for owners with and without mortgages.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharon M. Danes

Sharon M. Danes is Research Assistant and Earl W. Morris is Professor, Family Environment Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. This research was funded by the Fort Dodge City Planning Department, YOUR Inc., and the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University. The Experiment Station funding was provided in part through Title V of the Rural Development Act of 1972. This is Journal Paper No. J-11850 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa, Project No. 2530.

Earl W. Morris

Sharon M. Danes is Research Assistant and Earl W. Morris is Professor, Family Environment Department, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. This research was funded by the Fort Dodge City Planning Department, YOUR Inc., and the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University. The Experiment Station funding was provided in part through Title V of the Rural Development Act of 1972. This is Journal Paper No. J-11850 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa, Project No. 2530.