Your profession—and the size of your paycheck—plays greatly into whether you can afford to buy a home. But there are some lines of work that have higher homeownership rates than those traditionally associated with big salaries, according to an analysis from Ancestry.com.
For example, firefighters, police officers, farmers and toolmakers were more likely to own a home than lawyers or judges in 2012, according to the Ancestry.com analysis of Census data. The homeownership rate of teachers was higher than that of economists.
“You naturally might assume that homeownership follows income pretty well,” said Todd Godfrey, senior director of U.S. content acquisition at Ancestry.com. “Income isn’t the only variable.”
Eighty-four percent of all firefighters were homeowners in 2012, along with 79% of police officers and detectives, 74% of teachers and 81% of farmers, while 78% of lawyers and judges and 64% of economists could say the same, the report found. People with jobs that have strong ties to the community may be more likely to be homeowners, Godfrey said.
Those most likely to own a home were optometrists; least likely were dancers and dance teachers.
And just as the national homeownership rate has changed over time, so too has the rate in various professions. The overall homeownership rate in 1900 was 32%; it has nearly doubled since then, with the majority of the growth happening by 1960, according to the report.
But the growth in homeownership in some professions has been more pronounced than in others. For example, 14% of professional nurses were homeowners in 1900, while 74% were in 2012.
Below were the top and bottom professions for homeownership in 2012, according to Ancestry.com. (In putting together the list, researchers used categories from the Census in 1950, and then classified jobs in previous and later years under those 1950 categories—which is why some of the job titles sound a bit antiquated.)
Top 10 professions for homeownership
| Occupation | Homeownership rate |
| 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 professions for homeownership
| Occupation | Homeownership rate |
| 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% |
Click on this link for more findings from Ancestry.com’s report.
Amy Hoak's Home Economics: Professions with the highest (and lowest) homeownership rates
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