Proponents of home ownership argue that it ties people more closely to a community and makes people more invested in taking care of a neighborhood.
There are many factors that determine how much of a community is made up of homeowners vs. renters - age of the community, income, whether a town is mostly single-family housing or multi-family housing.
The Patch-created map above shows the percentage of the town's population that owns a home, based on figures from the 2010 census. A full window view of the map is available here.
Diamond Bar, as the map shows, has a strong rate of home ownership with 81.3 percent of the population living in a home they own. Walnut fares even better with a rate of 87.5 percent. Nearby neighbors have lower rates - 67.9 percent in Rowland Heights, 66.8 percent in West Covina,55.9 percent in Pomona and 78.2 percent in Hacienda Heights.
With the above map on left you can compare the different home ownership rates across L.A. County - the redder cities have the lowest rate, the greener the highest and the shades of orange and yellow are in between.
Do you think a high level of home ownership is important in a community? Share your views with us in the comments section.
