Any $1 Million Homes in Strongsville? You Bet

Homes valued at $1 million or more make up less than 1 percent of the housing stock in Strongsville, but there are still 100 of them in the city, according to new data from the U.S. Census.

How about houses valued below $50,000? There are 204 of those.

The numbers are in the newly released American Community Survey, which offers estimates from 2008-2010 on social and economic characteristics of cities.

Some interesting items:

• A full 50 percent of the city's 17,567 housing units were built before 1980. The biggest growth decade was the 1970s, when 28 percent of the homes here were constructed. Another 22 percent were built in the 1990s.

• Only about 10 percent of the population has lived in their current home since 1979.

• About 4 percent of households here don't have access to a vehicle. About 45 percent have two cars, and 22 percent have three or more vehicles available.

• About 3/4 of homes are heated with gas; 24 percent with electricity. A small number heat with wood (66) or other fuel (67), and 21 occupied homes use no fuel for heat, the data says. None use coal or solar energy.

• Of owner-occupied homes, 71 percent have a mortgage, and 36 percent of those report monthly owner costs (mortgage, real estate taxes, insurance and utilities) of more than $2,000 a month.

• 71 percent of Strongsville's households are occupied by families (people related by marriage, birth or adoption). About 2 percent of those homes include a man with children and no wife present; 7 percent are women with kids and no husband present.

• In the vast majority of the remaining 29 percent of households, the resident lives alone.