Builders and construction trades aren’t as likely to own homes as they are to create and sell them.
Roofers, for example, are among the least likely professionals to be homeowners—and not just within the construction industry, according to a report by Ancestry, world’s largest online resource for family history: 45.8% of them own property.
It might not surprise anyone to learn that engineers are far more likely to own their homes than trades like painters, cement finishers, brickmasons, tile setters, and carpenters—if it weren’t for another Ancestry finding that more teachers than economists own homes and that firefighters are more likely to be homeowners than lawyers or judges.
In fact, the Ancestry analysis of 112 years’ worth of Census Bureau data revealed that a big paycheck doesn’t necessarily translate into homeownership.
Who owns, who doesn't
Occupation, the study notes, has just as much to do with whether a working American owns a home.
For example, it’s common for public service professionals like firefighters, who have the seventh-highest rate of homeownership among the 300-plus occupations the organization studied, to own homes. Police officers and detectives rank 12th on the list, as 79% of them own.
Among construction trades, the operators of excavating, grading and road machinery rank pretty high, with 76% in the homeowner club. Likewise, 70% or more of surveyors, draftsmen, electricians, cabinetmakers, plumbers and pipefitters own property.
The study showed that 79% of engineers, 78% of real estate agents and brokers, 77% of architects and 77% of foremen own their homes.
Still, that’s fewer than the number of optometrists who have homes—90%, and of tool and dye makers (88%); dentists (87%); power station operators (87%) and firefighters (84%).
Least likely to own
The least likely construction workers to own homes are roofers, at 46%; painters (51%) ; laborers (53%) and designers (53%).
Across all occupations, the Ancestry analysis found, 64% of workers own homes. That’s up from 32% in 1900, when the Census Bureau began to track homeownership.
The professions whose members are least likely to own homes typically pay hourly wages of less than $20 an hour, the report notes. And those jobs are typically less stable than the ones held by professionals who are more likely to buy property.
Also, employees in most of the low-homeownership occupations tend to have less education than those in jobs that seem to lead to the American dream.
Military members, who are very unlikely to own their homes, according to the study, probably pass over property purchases because they live on base; are deployed; or tend to be younger than the general population.
Top 10
The 10 occupations with the highest rate of homeownership are:
- optometrists: 90%
- toolmakers and Die Makers/Setters: 88%
- dentists: 87%
- power station operators: 87%
- forgemen and hammermen: 84%
- inspectors: 84%
- firemen: 84%
- locomotive engineers: 84%
- airplane pilots and navigators: 83%
- farmers: 81%
Bottom 10
The bottom 10 occupations for homeownership:
- dancers and dance teachers: 23%
- motion picture projectionists: 27%
- waiters and waitresses: 27%
- counter and fountain workers: 28%
- members of the armed forces: 33%
- service workers (except private households): 34%
- bartenders: 35%
- charwomen and cleaners: 35%
- cashiers: 36%
- cooks (except private households): 36%
Source: Ancestry
Construction trades
Here is where construction-related workers rank on the list. Some of these jobs might be held by non-construction workers with similar job titles: