Though Indian-Americans have the distinction of being the highest-per capita income group among ethnic communities, they lag far behind their European counterparts when it comes to owning a house in the US.
According to the 'Homeownership Among the Foreign-Born Population: 2011', released by the Census Bureau, 55 per cent of the Indian-Americans own a house of their own while 45 live in rented accommodation.
Foreign-born owned households with a householder from Europe were the most likely to be owned free and clear (40 per cent), while foreign-born owned households with a householder from Africa were the least likely to be owned free and clear (14 per cent), it said.
Of the 20 country-of-birth groups with the largest number of foreign-born households in the US, several countries from Europe along with Canada [ Images ] had the highest homeownership rates.
Over 70 per cent of foreign-born households with a householder from Canada (71 per cent), Germany [ Images ] (72 per cent), Italy [ Images ] (79 per cent), and the United Kingdom (73 per cent) were owner occupied.
By comparison, less than one-third of the foreign-born households with a householder born in the Dominican Republic (25 per cent), Guatemala (30 per cent), and Honduras (31 per cent), were owner occupied. Italy and Germany were also among the country-of-birth groups with the highest percentage of owned homes that were owned free and clear.
About half of foreign-born households that were owned and had householders from Italy and Germany owned their homes free and clear (55 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively).
"Homeownership is a goal shared by many residents of the United States, both native- and foreign-born, citizen and noncitizen," said Elizabeth Grieco, chief of the Foreign-Born Population Branch at the Census Bureau.
"For immigrants in particular - who maintain nearly one in seven households in the US -making the transition from renter to homeowner represents a significant investment in the United States," Grieco said.
This report found that foreign-born naturalised citizens were more likely to own their homes than foreign-born noncitizens. In naturalized citizen households, 66 per cent were owner-occupied. That compares with 34 per cent of noncitizen households.
Rates of homeownership among foreign-born households also increased with time spent in the United States. Among foreign-born households with a householder who entered the US before 1980, nearly three-fourths were owned rather than rented.
Among households headed by someone who entered the US since 2000, only one-fourth were owned.
According to the brief, just 10 metropolitan statistical areas accounted for about half the nation's foreign-born households in 2011, led by New York and Los Angeles, each of which had more than one million foreign-born households.
Rounding out the top five were Miami [ Images ], Chicago and Houston. Nearly half, or about 45 per cent, of the metropolitan areas in the Northeast, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania, exceeded the national homeownership average for foreign-born households of 52 per cent.
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