Under One Roof

1. In August 2005 (near the peak of the last housing boom), there were 192,000 privately owned housing units started nationally. How many U.S. housing starts were there in August 2018?

112,600
149,300
187,700

2. The average American single-family house was 1,500 square feet in 1970. What was the average size in 2017?

1,953 square feet
2,247 square feet
2,599 square feet

3. What is considered the prototypical post-WWII suburban development, which offered affordable housing to returning soldiers?

Pleasantville
Potterville
Levittown

4. The median price of a new home in August 1998 was $154,900. In August 2008, it was $221,000. What was it in August 2018?

$239,900
$274,300
$320,200

5. What is the largest private home in the United States?

Biltmore House (Asheville, North Carolina)
Hearst Castle (San Simeon, California)
Andrew Carnegie Mansion (New York, New York)

6. What decade saw the introduction of the 30-year mortgage in the United States?

1920s
1940s
1960s

7. Nationally, the homeownership rate was 65.9 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 67.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008. What was the homeownership rate in the first quarter of 2018?

59.7 percent
64.2 percent
70.1 percent

8. What was the median age of the first-time homebuyer in 2016?

27 years
32 years
37 years

9. When did the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit its peak?

September 1974
November 1977
October 1981

10. True or false: The variable-rate mortgage is more popular than the fixed-rate mortgage.

True
False

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Under One Roof