By Associated Press
Louisville, KY – In a spin-off from the sour economy, Kentuckians are increasingly opting to rent and more housing units are empty than a decade ago, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Renter-occupied housing accounted for 31 percent of all homes, the 2010 census numbers found, up from 29 percent in 2000.
Nearly 11 percent of Kentucky's 1.9 million housing units were vacant compared to 9.2 percent a decade earlier, according to the numbers released last week.
Kentucky's housing market hasn't been as hard hit as many other states reeling from the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression. Still, the Bluegrass state has suffered from higher foreclosure rates, falling property value and anemic home construction.
Housing industry officials are hopeful that the sector's slump has bottomed out, but are expecting a slow-paced recovery until unemployment numbers drop and consumer confidence rebounds.
"It is not easy today as a working-class family to make ends meet," Lydia Prichard, a spokeswoman for Housing Partnership Inc., said in a recent telephone interview. "And that is making it very difficult for people to stay in housing or to try to buy a house."
The Louisville-based nonprofit builds and manages affordable housing and offers financial counseling for prospective homebuyers.
The figures on housing trends were part of broader census numbers for Kentucky released last Thursday. The report provided more detail about age ranges and offered more insight into the makeup of households.
The 2010 census numbers showed more Kentuckians were delaying their entry into homeownership, a trend that housing experts point to as a sure sign of anxiety about the economy.
The census also found that people who had paid off their mortgages were in 25 percent of all occupied housing in the state, down from 35 percent in 2000. The biggest share of the statewide housing market is occupied by people still making mortgage payments. They live in 757,084 housing units, or 44 percent of all occupied dwellings, versus 521,748 housing units, or nearly 55 percent, in the 2000 census.
Kentucky's unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.6 percent in June, down from 9.8 percent in May, which marked the first time the jobless rate had dropped below double digits since early 2009.
The growing ranks of renters partly reflects a lack of consumer confidence and concerns about job security, said Brenda Weaver, chief policy officer for the Kentucky Housing Corp., the state housing finance agency.
"People are trying to maintain a little more flexibility," she said. "So if there is a change in their job situation, it's easier to get out of a lease on an apartment and pack up and move than it is to try to sell a house."
Homeownership has benefits for families, neighborhoods and communities, but timing is critically important, Weaver said.
"There are some people that are not ready to be homeowners and probably should consider rent as an alternative," she said.
Meanwhile, vacant housing units totaled 207,199 in the 2010 census, up from 160,280 a decade earlier, or 9.2 percent of all housing in 2000.
The upswing is partly due to rising numbers of foreclosures as homeowners couldn't keep up with mortgage payments, Weaver said.
In 2006, before the economic downturn hit, there were 13,526 foreclosure actions filed statewide, Weaver said, citing statistics from the state Administrative Office of the Courts. By 2010, the filings had reached 18,737.
Abandoned housing tends to be concentrated in low-income neighborhoods, adding more problems for distressed areas.
"It has kind of a snowball effect," said Adam Hall, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Kentucky. "If you have several properties on your block that have been abandoned due to foreclosure, that drives the values down" for nearby homes.
Kentucky received $148 million last year from the U.S. Treasury Department to provide mortgage assistance for the unemployed or underemployed. Eligible recipients can receive up to $20,000 or 12 months of assistance, whichever comes first.
Up to $7,500 can be used to make overdue mortgage payments. The rest goes for mortgage payments for up to a year. The state's program is managed by Kentucky Housing Corp., and nearly 2,500 people had applied for assistance through June, Weaver said.