Ask Yahoo: How many "homeowners" own their homes outright?

Yahoo has this section called Ask Yahoo. On it I found this question and answer.

Dear Yahoo!:

How many "homeowners" own their homes outright?

Thomas
Joplin, Missouri

Home ownership is the American dream. Unfortunately, soul-sucking mortgages are often the reality. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, there's a big difference between owning a home outright and slaving away over a 30-year fixed. So, of all the so-called "homeowners" in the United States, how many actually own their homes?

Maybe we're just pessimistic, but the number was higher than we expected. According to a 2001 study by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), "nearly 40 percent of all residential properties in the United States, owner-occupied and rental units, are not mortgaged but are owned free and clear." For a country so often criticized for its debt, that's not a bad figure.

Those who wish to learn more about the demographics of the average American homeowner (be it person or corporate entity) can skim the report's 368 pages of scintillating facts and figures. One factoid that stood out to us -- from 1991 to 2001, the amount of outstanding mortgage debt on single-unit properties rose from $1.62 trillion to $3.48 trillion. America's housing boom was apparently a good time to be in the mortgage business. Go figure.