The value of your home may be a stronger predictor of your weight than the genes inhered from your ancestors. That's according to a new public health study from the University of Washington.

Health researchers and government officials usually group people by income or education level or even by zip code, but this study illustrates a more targeted approach.

A random telephone survey combined with King County tax records show women living in homes with the lowest 25 percent of the assessed property values in Seattle and the surrounding suburbs were more than three times more likely to be obese than women living in the most expensive homes.

The study was paid for by the National Institutes of Health and was published online this week in the journal Social Science & Medicine.