Average time of home ownership

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I was curious about this too, so I found the census data as of 2012 for housing tenure (it tells us how many households moved into their house in each decade. Data is for all 2.5 million MA households and assumes everyone in a particular decade moved in the middle of that decade (for example I used the year 2005 for everyone who moved in 2000-2009). I calculated the weighted average to be 15.4 years.

Year moved Pct Approx # of yrs in home Weighted Avg
2010-2012 9% 1 0.1
2000-2009 48% 7 3.4
1990-1999 19% 17 3.3
1980-1989 10% 27 2.6
1970-1979 7% 37 2.4
1969 and earlier 7% 52 3.6
100% 15.4 Avg # of yrs

Average is probably the wrong thing to ask for. Median is a better choice and that would be lower than 15, probably closer to 12.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Originally Posted by mmyk72

I know people who have stayed in the same home for 30-40+ yrs. These tend to be old timers who would rather die than move to another house or people who have family networks in the area.

People who moved here to accommodate a job and have no local family ties tend to move in 5-7 yrs - as soon as the job changes, they move.

Also, a lot of houses get passed down via inheritance. It's not unusual in older, established neighborhoods like mine. Off the top of my head I could point out whose kids now own which house within a two-block radius of my house. I grew up with some of these "kids" or grew up with their siblings. My parents and their parents either were friends or we knew their family through church or school, that kind of thing.

The irony is that although a lot of them stayed in this area, a lot of them also moved away. Some of them, like my childhood BFF, went to grad school out of state and didn't return because of a job offer. Some married and moved out of the area. A kid with whom I went to grade school sold his parents' house (around the corner from me) not too long after they both passed. The father/husband of the family who bought it was transferred here through his job.

I inherited my house. I'm torn about selling it because, although we struggle trying to maintain it, you can't ask for a better location IMO...which is why my parents bought it.