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Financial literacy is becoming an increasingly important policy consideration, yet its determinants are still underexplored. From the theoretical perspective of 'learning by doing', the effect of homeownership on financial literacy in urban China is identified by the instrumental variable strategy. First, the borrowing experience to purchase a home can awaken homeowners to develop basic financial knowledge, but the resulting debt burden constrains homeowners from participating in the financial market, crowding out their access to advanced financial skills. Second, the growth in home equity wealth induces homeowners pledge high-value properties as collateral and invest in more homes, in which case the collateralizing experience facilities the advancement of basic finance literacy, while locking the asset portfolio in the housing sector hinders homeowners from learning advanced financial skills. Moreover, the specific kind of financial literacy that homeowners show an advantage in differs depending on their income. These findings cast a new light on understanding the return of housing property to family financial affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHomeownership is a symbol of success in many societies. Yet, deteriorating housing affordability, coupled with the spread of casual labor and job insecurity, makes homeownership out of reach for many and calls into question the sustainability of the homeownership ideology. This study contributes to the scholarly debate on the ideal versus the reality of homeownership by examining stratified access to homeownership in Canada from 1986 to 2016 using six waves of population census data. We examined three narratives underlying the promises of the homeownership ideology: (1) widespread and (2) equal opportunities for homeownership access, and (3) the achievement of financial security through building property assets. This study investigates access to three types of housing tenure: outright homeownership, mortgaged homeownership, and renting, and presents empirical evidence that challenges the ideological premises of homeownership. As homeownership becomes more unattainable, “Generation Rent” and low- and moderate-income households lose opportunities for asset building and wealth accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeownership has been widely regarded as a critical determinant of public participation in social science research. However, the role of homeownership in public service coproduction has been under-researched. This study advances a theory of public service coproduction that accounts for the effect of homeownership and its underlying mechanisms by theorizing that homeownership increases coproduction participation by directly motivating individuals to protect their financial investments and indirectly improving their knowledge about government. Original data from a random telephone survey of 2,167 residents conducted in August 2022 in Beijing, China were used to test the hypotheses, and a series of analytical tools (e.g., weighted models, matching, and sensitivity analysis) were used to validate the theorized effects and mechanisms. Results consistently show that homeowners are more likely to report public service complaints to the government than nonowners. These findings have important implications for future theoretical research and practical efforts to promote public service coproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1980s, legislation to deregulate mortgage and real estate markets unleashed new levels of predatory lending and speculation in the low-income Black and Latinx neighborhoods of Los Angeles. By decade's end, deregulation resulted in an avalanche of foreclosed and abandoned homes, which became closely associated with gangs who dealt crack cocaine. In 1989, the city began to target these "crime magnets" for removal under "Operation Knockdown," with considerable community support. But drilling down to the neighborhood level reveals this support was not the expression of middle-class Black conservatives or a "Black silent majority," as historians have elsewhere inferred. For some neighbors, the concentration of "nightmare" properties in racialized communities was symptomatic of those communities' exclusion and disempowerment by finance, real estate, and local government. Such community responses to "drug dens" in Los Angeles suggest the limitations of pursuing inclusion in a political economy increasingly organized around asset price inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study fills a significant research gap in Malaysian government-led homeownership and affordability. Centered on crucial market attributes influencing these initiatives, insights from low-income groups were obtained. The primary aim of this study was to assess the importance of various market attributes on government homeownership initiatives in Malaysia. The data were collected from low-income groups using a structured questionnaire, providing valuable insights into the unique challenges faced by this demographic. A Relative Importance Index (RII) was employed to analyze the data, revealing that Financial Market Factors, Household Financial Capacity, Housing Affordability and Accessibility, and Government Housing Policies were the market attributes of the highest importance in shaping government homeownership efforts. The results of the exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that the Financial Market Factor was the most influential component, as indicated by its mean rank. This study sought to incorporate the valuable perspectives of respondents regarding integrating future value into financing models. Respondents' opinions reflected a significant level of support for such innovative approaches. This study examines the crucial market attributes influencing government homeownership initiatives in Malaysia. The findings underline the potential of incorporating future value into financing models to enhance housing affordability for low-income groups and promote broader homeownership objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the concept of residential alienation to political activism in Hong Kong in the decade following the Global Financial Crisis. Young adults in Hong Kong have endured growing housing vulnerability with declining real wages, limited social benefits, and spiralling housing prices. Although university-educated, many have been excluded from the wealth accumulation of homeownership and entry to a middle-class asset society. Some have joined the waiting list for public housing. Using varied sources, the paper examines the objective and subjective status of young adults in Hong Kong as a disadvantaged housing class and how their status has corresponded with critical political attitudes. Without disputing the motivational goals of the democracy movement, the paper argues that residential alienation played a part in political mobilization. Economic justice, notably housing inclusion, required a political project to challenge the residential growth machine sanctioned by Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since around 2008 there has been a sharp decline in homeownership rates in many OECD countries, particularly among young adults. This may reflect changing preferences for more flexible housing options or a decline in affordability due to a combination of house price increases and more difficult access to finance (mortgage loans, deteriorating labour market conditions, insufficient income, etc.). We first examine how these trends affect Austria as a whole and then focus on two regions with long-term policy strategies to promote homeownership through tailored housing subsidy programmes (Lower Austria, Vorarlberg). We use survey data from three sources (Microcensi, EU-SILC, HFCS) and regional administrative data. Our results show that young adults (up to 35) are less likely to become homeowners in 2020 than in 2010, although this is more pronounced for the middle-aged (35–49) than for younger people. We show that the analysis at national level is insufficient, as there are large differences between regions and between types of dwelling. Focusing on the regional level reveals that price dynamics in urban areas, which exceed income developments, appear to be the main drivers. As young households participate less in homeownership than previous generations, this points to a latent and deepening problem of intergenerational equity. Current regional policies to promote homeownership do not reach the necessary scale to counteract the dominant market trends. We discuss regional policy options that make use of the Austrian housing policy framework and focus on increasing the overall supply of housing rather than exclusively on demand-side measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2022, Chileans overwhelmingly rejected the draft of a new constitution to replace the inherited from Pinochet's dictatorship. Existing explanations attribute the failure to a mixture of ill-designed procedures, political dynamics, and ideological distortions and fake news. However, we argue for a different interpretation, emphasizing the collision of normative worlds in the struggle for demarcating rights. Through narrative analysis of social media stories during the referendum campaign, we investigate distinct moral economies around the constitutional debate on housing rights. These reveal a tension between divergent rights claims anchored in the value of "ownership" versus "dignity." Within these almost irreconcilable normative universes, private property condenses meanings across narratives: the value of personal home-ownership effort and the collective aspiration for decent housing access. While not inherently incompatible, these narratives evolved into polarizing channels through which property became the defining moral boundary that underlies the stories shaping Chile's constitutional struggle over rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black homeownership declines across the U.S.A. at significantly higher rates than white, Hispanic, or Asian homeownership. Although the cost to own a home is lower in Republican states, Black Americans are much less likely to maintain homeownership in those areas. This article attempts to gain leverage on the following question: "what is the penalty of political parties on Black homeownership in America?" The findings presented here provide support to the notion that there is a nationwide penalty of political parties on Black homeownership. The variation in this penalty is dependent on a given state's opportunity structure for institutional racism, which changes based on the state's foreclosure laws and partisan leanings. To support the nationwide findings, this article provides a case study on Black homeownership across the state of New York's judicial districts with 221 partisan-elected judges, revealing that there remains a penalty in Republican judicial districts. Previous scholarship has analyzed the relationship between parties and foreclosures, as well as the relationship between race and foreclosures. This article assesses the intertwined relationship of parties, race, and foreclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: US housing policy places a high priority on homeownership, providing large homeowner subsidies that are justified in part by homeownerships purported health benefits. However, studies conducted before, during, and immediately after the 2007-2010 foreclosure crisis found that while homeownership is associated with better health-related outcomes for White households, that association is weaker or non-existent for African-American and Latinx households. It is not known whether those associations persist in the period since the foreclosure crisis changed the US homeownership landscape. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between homeownership and health and whether that relationship differs by race/ethnicity in the period since the foreclosure crisis. DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 8 waves (2011-2018) of the California Health Interview Survey (n = 143,854, response rate 42.3 to 47.5%). PARTICIPANTS: We included all US citizen respondents ages 18 and older. MAIN MEASURES: The primary predictor variable was housing tenure (homeownership or renting). The primary outcomes were self-rated health, psychological distress, number of health conditions, and delays in receiving necessary medical care and/or medications. KEY RESULTS: Compared to renting, homeownership is associated with lower rates of reporting fair or poor health (OR = 0.86, P

The study investigates economic disparities between immigrants and native populations in receiving societies, going beyond traditional factors like education and work experience. It explores the influence of cultural distance between immigrants' origin countries and the USA on three socio-economic indicators: income, homeownership, and poverty status. Using measures from Hofstede (2001) and Inglehart and Welzel (2005), the study relies on data from the American Community Survey (2002–2022). Controls include English proficiency, survey year, education, marital status, age, gender, and community disadvantage. Multivariate results consistently highlight the significance of cultural distance as a predictor for income, homeownership, and poverty status among immigrants. These findings remain robust even when accounting for other factors, emphasizing the substantial role of cultural barriers in immigrant economic adaptation beyond differences in human capital, community economic conditions, and other controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaining housing autonomy in ownership-oriented housing systems has been observed as increasingly difficult for contemporary youth, including university students. This article analyses how students make sense of their experiences in private rentals, which is assumed to shape their dispositions and capacities to act in the housing market in the future. We contribute to the conceptualisation of young people’s housing choices and aspirations by offering evidence from the understudied post-socialist context of Tallinn, Estonia. Inspired by Bourdieu’s theory of practice and combining in-depth interviews with a survey, we show how the student experience in a weakly regulated private rental market supports their selfperception as established ‘players’ in the market, while developing a distinct investmentminded disposition to housing. Furthermore, the high symbolic value of homeownership conveyed by families in a ‘super homeownership’ society has rather strengthened among students, despite restricted opportunities to market entry.

The Great Financial Crisis has made it evident that the housing trajectories of young adults during an economic cycle are subject to change. These changes have been recognized in highly developed housing markets little, however, is known about changes taking place in post-socialist, still often defined as developing, countries. This article aims to foster an understanding of shifting housing transitions among young adults in Poland. This article analyzed pre-crisis and post-crisis changes in the living arrangements of Poles aged from 25 to 34 years old focussing on three types of accommodation: living with parents, renting or owning a flat. The results show that in Poland young people's access to homeownership is declining and is compensated for by postponing moving out of the family home during the recessionary period and relocating to rental properties during the expansionary period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, interracial and interethnic marriages have increased significantly. The rise in intermarriages has been celebrated for their potential to reduce ethnoracial distinctions and ethnoracial inequality. Whether the increase in interracial and interethnic unions can reduce disparities in homeownership across ethnoracial groups is unknown. Using data on the 2008–2021 American Community Survey (ACS), we compare the homeownership rates of Millennials in intermarriages with those of couples in endogamous unions and identify the factors contributing to differences in homeownership rates between interracial and couples in ethnoracial endogamy. Our results show that the homeownership rates of interracial couples fall somewhere between those of endogamous couples belonging to the husband’s or wife’s ethnoracial groups. These differences emerge primarily due to variations in nativity composition, educational attainment, family income, average value of homes, and proportion of rentals. The intermediary homeownership rates of interracial couples suggest that the rise in intermarriages will reduce ethnoracial inequality in homeownership rates. Nonetheless, couples in marriages involving an ethnoracial minority spouse have lower homeownership rates than endogamous White couples. This White/non-White divide in homeownership rates highlights the need for a housing policy that enhances opportunities for homeownership among interracial and endogamous minority couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing independence of young adults has become more complex and uncertain in Europe over the last decades. Previous research suggests that patterns of independent living and housing demand have become more differentiated and socially stratified, especially since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). The decline in homeownership and the availability of social housing has been accompanied by an increase in private renting and shared accommodation. Moreover, young adults have increasingly relied on their parents for both material and non material support to overcome constraints and achieve independent living. This paper examines how the relationship between parental background and both young adults' leaving home, and their first housing tenure changed during the GFC in different European housing contexts. Using longitudinal data from EU-SILC (2008–2018), the results show that parental background still plays a significant stratifying role in the housing independence of young adults from the pre – to the post-crisis period, particularly in terms of first tenure status rather than home-leaving. The influence of the housing context on both housing market opportunities and the role of parents in young adults' independence shapes the shift from co-residence with parents to living independently in either homeownership or rented accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While homebuying has become central to the economic security and life-course transitions of younger Chinese adult cohorts, affordability has become an increasing obstacle. With individual savings and housing loans fading as means of achieving homeownership, intergenerational transfers have acquired renewed status. This paper addresses the agency of young people and their families in negotiating adverse housing market conditions. It draws on qualitative interviews with young-adults in Shanghai that explore intergenerational transfers and the strategies deployed to finance homebuying and in developing long-term financial arrangements. Our research stresses intergenerational collaboration in how young people navigate owner-occupation as well as how features of families and housing financialization combine to shape the behaviour of young people in the housing market. Shanghai represents a challenging market for young homebuyers, but provides insights on how family-support can shape housing systems and pathways in various housing contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, there are signs of declining migration to high-productivity urban areas due to restrictions in the housing market and increasing regional differences in housing prices. Using detailed population-wide register data for Sweden, we estimate how regional variation in housing prices and homeownership is associated with the individual's decision whether to accept a job offer in the Stockholm metropolitan region and the interrelated choice between migration and commuting as the mobility mode. Our findings indicate that high relative housing prices in the Stockholm area and homeownership are associated with decreasing total geographical labour mobility to the region. This is pronounced among the young and among highly skilled workers. The negative effects of high relative housing prices and homeownership on migration are partially but not fully compensated by positive effects on commuting to Stockholm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we propose a novel conceptualization of homeownership in the United States as a special commodity, whose consumption involves a two-stage process: homeownership entry wherein the ability to consume is pivotal, and homeownership retention wherein the outcome rests on economic security. Based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we test this conceptualization with consumption ability being proxied by income and economic security by liquid wealth. Three hypotheses are verified: (1) income predicts first-time renters' chance of becoming homeowners but has weakened influence on homeownership retention; (2) liquid wealth constitutes the central determinant for first-time homeowners' ability to avoid going back to renting; and (3) nonliquid wealth fails to exhibit a significant impact on either homeownership stage. By revealing the two separate stages of different homeownership dynamics, this study is the first to systematically explore the built-in contradiction of capitalist housing markets. Policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If France has been characterized as an intermediary case in housing regimes, the goal of this brief is to provide further qualitative dimensions to assess its peculiar form of Housing Asset-Based Welfare (HABW). To contribute to recent debates around homeownership, including the Western obsession with homeownership and the production of housing wealth and inequalities, we argue that despite French strong pro-homeownership policies since the 1970s and the will to keep afloat social welfare, a new regime based on housing policy, and retirement pension reforms developed since the 1990s. It favoured the advancement of ordinary financialization amongst French households, with a constant increase in the ratio of debt to disposable income, and unequal effects in terms of homeownership access and personal wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeownership rates differ widely across European countries. We document that part of this variation is driven by differences in the fraction of adults co-residing with their parents. Comparing Germany and Italy, we show that in contrast to homeownership rates per household, homeownership rates per individual are very similar during the first part of the life cycle. To understand these patterns, we build an overlapping-generations model where individuals face uninsurable income risk and make consumption-saving and housing tenure decisions. We embed an explicit intergenerational link between children and parents to capture the three-way trade-off between owning, renting, and co-residing. Calibrating the model to Germany we explore the role of income profiles, housing policies, and the taste for independence and show that a combination of these factors goes a long way in explaining the differential life-cycle patterns of living arrangements between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and its related impacts are fast becoming the dominant force in the housing market. The fundamental role that housing plays in people's lives makes these effects particularly pernicious, often impacting employment, school attendance, undermining physical and mental health, disrupting social networks, and contributing to food insecurity. The complexity of addressing these issues is compounded by the cyclical and reciprocal relationships among these factors, with housing inequalities frequently lying at the core and climate change impacts percolating throughout. I introduce the framework of acute, secondary, and pre‐emptive/reactive impacts to help understand these mechanisms. To understand and contextualize these connections, I provide a brief overview racial segregation in the United States and related inequalities that place some individuals, groups, and communities at greater risk. Other key sources of housing instability in the United States that are often closely related to housing segregation include lack of affordable housing, growing income inequality, housing discrimination, evictions, and foreclosures, all of which contribute to unequal housing outcomes. These factors are explored using the temporal framework to discuss their connection to climate change, which is in and of itself a major force of housing instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We empirically examine the nexus between Locus of Control (LoC) and housing tenure in Australia. Drawing on data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Survey for the period 2001–2021, we find that being internal on LoC is associated with a higher likelihood of homeownership and transitioning from renting to owning a home, while being external on LoC is more likely to lead to the opposite. This result is consistent across multiple robustness checks. We also find evidence that social capital and income are transmission mechanisms through which LoC influences housing tenure. We provide some suggestions for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent attitudes toward housing are influenced by established norms, particularly preferences for single‐family detached dwellings, years before making independent housing‐related decisions. In today's challenging homeownership landscape, this study, guided by housing adjustment theory, explores the timing and factors shaping adolescents' awareness of housing. In surveying 12–18‐year‐old 4‐H participants in a Southeastern state, age emerges as a pivotal factor, with awareness of housing by at least age 12. The impact of housing costs on participants' responses suggests exposure to broader affordability challenges. Analyzing these early experiences may offer educational opportunities to empower adolescents to make informed housing decisions later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the impact of financially assisted homeownership for Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity home recipients as measured in life satisfaction. We develop and assess a model with homeownership as the independent variable and financial well-being, current health, and psychological well-being as mediating variables that impact life satisfaction. We utilize data from 184 Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity homeowners and applicants to test the model. The findings show that homeownership through Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity is related to life satisfaction. That relationship is partially mediated by financial well-being, current health, and psychological well-being, where the mediating variables amplify the relationship between homeownership and life satisfaction.

This study examines how homeownership is associated with fertility intentions among migrant population in urban China. Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, after controlling for a wide range of household demographical and socioeconomic characteristics and city fixed effects, we find that homeowners are on average 1.12 percentage points more likely to desire future children than renters. The estimated homeownership effect has on average a 7.8% increase in the desire for future children. This result is robust to a series of different model specifications. Moreover, we find that the homeownership effect on fertility intentions mainly occurs in households without children. Homeowners having full property ownership have a higher desire for future children than renters. On the contrary, those having joint ownership of property do not differ much from renters in terms of the desire for future children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the policy drivers of the substantial household credit boom experienced in recent decades. While existing work has typically pointed to the retreat of the state, deregulating and substituting public safety nets by private credit, this paper brings the focus to the active use by governments of 'fiscal policy as credit policy' through homeownership subsidization. In this context, the paper introduces a new unique dataset of 550 homeownership subsidies adjustments in 51 advanced and emerging countries since 1990, which brings two important contributions. First, I show that these fiscal subsidies have been increasingly used since the 1990s and significantly contributed to the easy credit stance up to the global financial crisis in both advanced and emerging countries. Second, using panel fixed effects regressions, I find that these subsidies, and notably mortgage interest deductibility, are indeed significantly associated with household/mortgage credit expansion, with crucial distributional and financial stability implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHomeownership is a primary aspiration for many immigrants to Canada, and although copious literature follows the progression of newer arrivals, much less research focuses on the success levels of their children, particularly those born in Canada. In this article, we look at the homeownership rates of second-generation Black, Chinese, South Asian, and White Immigrants, comparing them to each other and their first-generation counterparts. We find significant differences across groups but striking similarities between first and second-generation immigrants from the same racialized groups. This suggests that race-based ‘homeownership hierarchies’ are durable and cannot be fully explained by factors associated with immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of homeownership on subjective well-being and how it varies by location, age and income in Australia. We apply panel data models with instrumental variables within a two-stage modelling framework and find that homeownership, particularly outright ownership, positively affects subjective well-being – as measured by life, financial, home and neighbourhood satisfaction – relative to renting. However, these effects are not homogeneous. Outright owners in major urban locations enjoy higher financial satisfaction but poorer neighbourhood satisfaction than their counterparts outside major urban locations. The subjective well-being gap between owners and renters widens as age increases within the age range of 30s to 60s. However, the presence of mortgage debt depresses the financial satisfaction associated with homeownership. Beyond age 50, the existence of a mortgage debt burden cancels any positive financial satisfaction effects that homeownership has relative to renting. As income increases, the positive effects of homeownership on subjective well-being diminishes in the domain of financial satisfaction This reflects greater diversification in high-income households' asset portfolios compared to low-income households' portfolios. We discuss the policy implications of these heterogeneous effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of political economy scholarship stressing the class antagonisms that undergird housing systems. Despite differences, these contributions focus on housing as a component of a nation's economy and the role of political institutions as managers of that system. Our goal is to help assess the value of emerging discussions that focus on the centrality of housing assets to ideas of class and the structuring of social opportunity. We identify four key elements of such approaches: first, a concern with changes within capitalism since the GFC; second, an interest in the continued role of the State; third, the ideological position of housing and tenure; and, finally, a concern with the class-tenure antagonisms that feature in many urban settings. We argue that while an emerging body of work now examines the role of housing assets in shaping class-based fissures there remains a need to consider the policy histories affecting the shifting position of particular tenures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulties accessing homeownership and reduced rates of owner-occupation among recent birth cohorts are a major concern for Global North policymakers. However, surprisingly little is known about how patterns of entry into homeownership have varied spatially across the early lives of recent birth cohorts. Using life course perspectives and survey data, this study examines how regional disparities in homeownership trajectories and transitions have varied across the life courses of four birth cohorts who entered the British housing system after 1990. The results show a nonlinear pattern of postponed homeownership across cohorts which has not varied greatly across regions. London is the most distinctive area and delayed homeownership transitions have long been a feature of the capital's housing market. Taken together, the findings illustrate the value of more thoroughly examining how place intersects with biographical and historical time in nuanced ways to shape housing careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States after the Great Recession, despite growing attention to low-income households' homeownership vulnerability, the existing works tend to take specific angles and produce only piecemeal evidence. By placing liquid assets' function of mediating financial hardships in the context of homeownership dynamics, I establish a synthesized conceptual framework. Based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), I put this framework to a test and find that liquid assets not only reduce the risk of homeownership exit in general but play a pivotal role in accounting for low-income borrowers' elevated rates of exit. I discuss policy implications of the findings at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between homeownership and completed fertility. We hypothesize that homeownership unaffordability decreases completed fertility by delaying the start of childbearing, thus, increasing the mother’s age at first birth. Applying a Cox Proportional Hazard model on the 2000 US Census and the 2015–2019 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we show that renters delay childbearing relative to homeowners. Using the same methodology and the 2000 US Census, we find that renters in relatively unaffordable real estate markets delay the start of childbearing more than those in more affordable ones. Lastly, we use the 1990 US Census and an Ordinary Least-Squares regression, to show that women’s age at first birth is negatively associated with completed fertility. These results provide evidence that the lack of affordable (owned) housing delays the start of childbearing which reduces completed fertility. Thus, even temporary housing unaffordability, especially difficulty to transition to homeownership, might have long-lasting effects on the age pyramid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPrior scholarship has documented and tried to explain growing inequalities in individual wealth holdings—especially between homeowners and renters—but has not considered the role of residential position in the rural-urban hierarchy. We estimate fixed-effect models of one’s rank in national net, housing and financial wealth distributions during the 2010–2018 period, based on Norwegian register data on prime-age individuals. We find dramatic geographic differences in trajectories of wealth accumulation that are strongly conditioned by tenure. Residing longer in a more urbanized area—especially in the central Oslo region—results in a substantially higher net wealth position only for homeowners. This result is driven overwhelmingly by their greatly superior gains in housing wealth over the period. By contrast, the net wealth and financial wealth positions for those who always rent are virtually indistinguishable across the hierarchy, regardless of duration of residence. Our evidence suggests that the positive correlation between earnings and rent levels across the rural-urban hierarchy yields this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tracks the arrival of investors in the housing market of Dudelange, Luxembourg. In so doing, it focuses on the socio-economic changes accompanying the transformation of homes into assets, since the first apartment was built in the city in the mid-1960s until 2018. Drawing on complete land registry data, we chart the structure of apartment ownership in the context of the city's transition from an industrial to a financialised economy, with particular attention to three characteristics of buyers: age at purchase, country of birth and occupation. We investigate how homeowner characteristics have shifted over time in a context where housing policies have incentivised investor activity and demand. We highlight how three policies put in place in the early 2000s to encourage real estate investments seem to have strengthened the position of the group already most advantaged on the Luxembourg housing market: those born in Luxembourg and over 45 years of age. Given that this group has on average the highest median incomes and the highest homeownership rates, we argue that these policies that incentivised property investments are likely to have accelerated housing (and wider) inequalities in an overheated housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling is commonly associated with social and economic disadvantage. In this paper we examine the impact of gambling on homeownership, using Australian panel data. We find that gambling is associated with a lower probability of homeownership. Specifically, our endogeneity corrected estimates show that an increase in problem gambling is associated with between 1.6 and 1.8 percentage point decrease in the probability of owning a home depending on the model. Our result show that financial stress and social capital are channels through which gambling influences the probability of homeownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether and how strongly the share of homeowners in a community affects residential property taxation by local governments. Different from renters, homeowners bear the full property tax burden, irrespective of local market conditions, and the tax is more salient to them. "Homeowner communities" may hence oppose high property taxes in order to protect their housing wealth. By merging granular spatial data from a complete housing inventory in the 2011 German Census with historical homeownership rates and housing damages during the Second World War as sources of exogenous variation in local homeownership, we provide empirical evidence that otherwise identical jurisdictions charge significantly lower property taxes when the share of homeowners in their population is higher. This result is invariant to local market conditions, which suggests tax salience is the key mechanism behind this effect. Moreover, we find positive spatial dependence on tax multipliers, indicative of property tax mimicking by local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides new European evidence about the relation between the much discussed mortgage interest deduction (MID) and homeownership. We also examine which household-group, based on income or marital status, is (mainly) encouraged via this fiscal relief to own a home. To do so, we estimate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regressions by using Eurostat EU-statistics on income and living conditions data in twelve countries over 2003-2018. Our quantitative study shows that an MID generally fails to advance its purpose of promoting homeownership, likely due to price capitalization. However, our results underscore that there is (substantial) variation across household groups. From the odds ratios, we conclude that the intended positive effect of an MID on homeownership probability occurs only for the highest-income households; those who need the most help with good-quality affordable housing are the most discouraged via this relief to become a homeowner. Since the continuation of an MID remains one of the contested issues in many national debates, our empirical findings provide useful insights for governments around the world that wish to promote homeownership through tax incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamics Survey, this study employs generalized structural equation modeling to examine the effects of migrants' places of origin and socioeconomic status on their destination choice and access to homeownership in the destination city. The analyses reveal significant disparities in access to homeownership among migrants from different places of origin. Furthermore, the position of the destination city in the urban hierarchy not only has a direct impact on migrants' access to homeownership but also plays an important mediating role. This study highlights the spatial foundations of housing inequality and builds an analytical framework that links spatial mobility with social mobility. Our findings have significant implications for housing policies and practices aimed at improving the housing conditions of new-generation migrants.

AbstractParental support increasingly influences young people’s housing outcomes. Using OLS models, this study examines the relative effects of parental and own socioeconomic status and political resources on young homeowners’ housing quality and their temporal dynamics in Beijing, China. We find that the market transition theory has explanatory power for both generations. However, the socioeconomic status of parents outweighs that of young homeowners in influencing their multifaceted housing qualities. These housing qualities are also positively associated with parents’, but negatively with the young homeowners’ political resources. This indicates power persistence theory does not stand for the younger generation, but parental political advantages derived from the socialist system are remanent in shaping contemporary youth’s housing stratification. The more recent the acquisition of homeownership by young adult children, the stronger the positive influence of parental attributes, but the weaker the influence of the younger generation’s own attributes. This demonstrates the intergenerational reproduction of housing stratification and socio-spatial inequality becomes more pronounced as housing affordability declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamics Survey, this study employs generalized structural equation modeling to examine the effects of migrants' places of origin and socioeconomic status on their destination choice and access to homeownership in the destination city. The analyses reveal significant disparities in access to homeownership among migrants from different places of origin. Furthermore, the position of the destination city in the urban hierarchy not only has a direct impact on migrants' access to homeownership but also plays an important mediating role. This study highlights the spatial foundations of housing inequality and builds an analytical framework that links spatial mobility with social mobility. Our findings have significant implications for housing policies and practices aimed at improving the housing conditions of new-generation migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeownership rates are declining in many countries and the potential impact on financial wellbeing is largely unknown. Additionally, the potential impact may be expected to be larger for women than men, as women tend to value homeownership more than men. Finally, financial literacy may play a role on financial wellbeing via a positive effect onto housing tenure (i.e., renter, mortgagor, outright homeowner). On the basis of a community sample of older Australians (N = 2608), we tested a model with housing tenure as a predictor of financial wellbeing, controlling for the effects of wealth, income, age, and marital status. Housing tenure yielded a significant, positive, unique effect onto financial wellbeing. We failed to find evidence that the effect of housing tenure on financial wellbeing was larger for women than men. Finally, financial literacy was associated positively with financial wellbeing; and, the effect was entirely mediated positively by housing tenure, wealth and income. We conclude that outright homeownership may accord approximately 10% greater financial wellbeing than renting (and ≈ 6% greater than mortgaged) in Australian seniors. Furthermore, higher levels of financial literacy may play a unique role in facilitating better housing tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]