Average Homes in Counties with Democratic Congressional Representatives Valued at $429,000, Versus $245,000 in Republican Districts; Homeowners in Democratic Areas Also Have More Equity Built Up; But Property Taxes are Far Lower in GOP Counties
IRVINE, Calif. – Nov. 3, 2020 – ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), released a special political housing analysis today showing that average homes in Democrat-controlled counties around the nation are worth 75 percent more than those in Republican-controlled counties. The analysis also shows that homeowners in Democratic areas are more likely to have substantial equity established, while, property taxes in counties that lean Republican are roughly half of what homeowners pay in Democratic areas.
Among roughly 3 million single family homes sold in 2019 in the United States, the average price in counties with Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives was $428,958, compared to $245,085 in Republican-leaning counties.
When it comes to equity built up in their properties, 31 percent of homeowners with mortgages in Democratic-leaning areas are considered equity-rich, meaning the balance remaining on their loans is less than half the estimated value of their homes. Just 24.3 percent of owners in Republican-controlled areas fall into that category. Moreover, 4.9 percent of owners in Democratic counties are seriously underwater, meaning they owe at least 125 percent of the value of their properties; while 7.2 percent are seriously underwater in Republican counties.
On the flip side, homeowners in Republican-controlled districts pay lower property taxes — $2,676 on average, compared to $5,127 in Democrat-controlled districts. Republican counties also have fewer homes that have been taken over by lenders in foreclosure proceedings: about 50,000, versus 61,000 in Democratic counties.
Report Methodology
There are many ways to approach the question of which political party is better for homeowners, but for this approach ATTOM Data Solutions looked at home values, homeowner equity, property taxes and foreclosures for single-family houses purchased in 2019 as well as homes with mortgages and properties taken in foreclosure actions. Those metrics were measured for homes in counties with Democrat versus Republican representatives in the United States Congress. Counties with more than one representative in Congress were considered Democrat or Republican based on a majority of those Congress members. For example, a county with two Republican representatives and one Democrat was considered Republican. Counties with an even split – for example, one Democrat and one Republican – were excluded from the analysis.
About ATTOM Data Solutions
ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, marketing lists, match & append and introducing the first property data delivery solution, a cloud-based data platform that streamlines data management – Data-as-a-Service (DaaS).
Media Contact:
Christine Stricker
949.748.8428
christine.stricker@attomdata.com
Data and Report Licensing:
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