No mortgage? No worries

Amid the subprime mortgage disaster, research shows that one in three U.S. homeowners do not have a mortgage to worry about...

With the subprime crisis in the States dominating the headlines, you would be forgiven for thinking that very few American homeowners don't have a mortgage.

However, a full one-third of U.S. homeowners are mortgage free, according to an analysis of census information by USA Today. In fact, there are 123 areas of the country where 40 per cent or more of homeowners don't have a mortgage.

Many of those areas also never had any sort of boom in prices, either because they are in declining areas that have suffered job losses and dwindling population or because they are thriving retirement communities.

Cities with the highest per centage of owner-occupied properties that are mortgage free:

Bluefield, W. Va.:             57 per cent
Sebring, Fla.:                   56 per cent
Odessa, Texas:                54 per cent
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas:       54 per cent
Weirton, W.Va.-Steubenville, Ohio:     53 per cent

Source: USA Today