Housing Characteristics of Older Asian Americans

This study described the housing tenure and residential density of elders from the six largest Asian American ethnic groups in the US: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Asian Indian, and Vietnamese. These groups were compared to non-Hispanic White elders. Based on data from the 2000 US Census of Population, multilevel regression analyses showed that Japanese elders were most like the non-Hispanic White comparison group across the two housing dimensions. Older Vietnamese persons were least likely to own their homes compared to the other Asian American groups, and with the exception of the Japanese elders, all Asian groups were more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to live in crowded residences. In general, considerable heterogeneity in housing characteristics was observed across the six older Asian American ethnic groups, even after controlling for assimilation and housing discrimination indicators.