July/August, 1995

Missouri's Housing: 1980-1990

Missouri Overview

Of Missouri s nearly two million occupied housing units in 1990, 18 percent were constructed between 1980 and 1990; 29 percent were constructed prior to 1950; seven percent were mobile homes. However, "manufactured homes" is a more accurate way of describing mobile homes since a growing number are modular homes. About five percent of Missouri s homes did not have telephone service in 1990, and 18 percent are classified as "cost burdened." Cost burdened homes (Map 1) are those, either rented or owned, in which the occupants have an income of less than $20,000, and they spend more than 30 percent of their income on either rent or mortgage payments.

Table 1 compares Missouri with surrounding states on three key housing variables. Missouri trails Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Tennessee in the proportion of non-metro housing constructed during the 1980s. Rural counties in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska have a much higher percentage than Missouri of housing 50 or more years old. Rural Missouri has a higher proportion of manufactured homes than Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma but a lower proportion than Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Differences Among Missouri Counties

Table 2 shows there is wide variation in housing characteristics among Missouri counties. For example, the percentage of homes constructed between 1980 and 1990 ranges from a low of 5.5 percent in St. Louis City to a high of 43 percent in St. Charles County. As Map 2 shows, the counties having the highest percentage of newly constructed homes are generally those that had the greatest population increases between 1980 and 1990. These include suburban St. Louis and Kansas City and the counties extending from Columbia down through the Lake of the Ozarks, Springfield and Branson. The lowest percentage of newly constructed homes is found across rural north Missouri - a region that generally has been losing population for decades.

Table 2 and Map 3 show the percent of occupied housing constructed prior to 1950. The proportion of housing constructed prior to 1950 ranges from a low of 6.7 percent in Camden County to more than 70 percent in St. Louis City. St. Louis City reached a peak in population in 1950 and has declined significantly since then. Much the same is true in rural north Missouri. Much of north Missouri reached a peak in population at the turn of the century and has lost population since. Understandably, they have a generally older housing stock. In 22 counties in that region, more than 40 percent of homes occupied in 1990 were constructed prior to 1950. Correspondingly, in most of those counties, a very low percentage of housing was constructed during the 1980s. Typical are counties such as Worth, Scotland and Atchison in which more than 50 percent of homes are more than 50 years old, and fewer than 8 percent were constructed during the 1980s. Localities with a high percentage of older homes may be experiencing a housing shortage, even though they are not gaining population, because of deterioration of some of the older housing stock.

Mobile (manufactured) homes range from a low of zero percent total of housing in St. Louis City to a high of nearly 29 percent in Hickory County. Generally, manufactured homes account for a higher percntage of housing stock in rural counties in southern Missouri most of which gained population during the 1980s. It would appear that manufactured homes have met some of the increased demand for housing in those rural areas. The relationship between manufactured housing and population growth is also evident in Lincoln, Warren and Jefferson counties in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Overall, five percent of Missouri s occupied housing in 1990 was without telephone service. However, in 26 counties more than 10 percent of homes lacked phone service, ranging as high as 19.5 percent in Carter County. Only one percent of St. Louis County homes lack phone service. Phone service lacking is more often in rental homes. Part of the concern about housing in Missouri involves not only availability but also affordability. The percentage of households classified as cost burdened ranges from a low of 9.8 percent in St. Charles County to a high of 30.6 percent in Adair County and St. Louis City. Although the proportion of cost burdened householders is related to county poverty rates, there is also an association with a university student population as reflected in Nodaway (Northwest Missouri State), Adair (Truman University), Boone (University of Missouri-Columbia), Johnson (Central Missouri State) and Phelps (University of Missouri-Rolla) being included among counties with the highest rates of cost burdened occupants.

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