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Title: Racial and Ethnic Stratification in the Health Benefits of Homeownership
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: Past research has linked homeownership to a significant health advantage, which has typically been assumed to apply equally to all groups. However, this assumption warrants greater scrutiny because racial and ethnic minorities experience large disadvantages in both access to and returns from homeownership. Substantially smaller proportions of non-Whites are homeowners compared to Whites, and they experience diminished returns to housing quality, wealth accumulation, and neighborhood quality. This study is the first to examine racial and ethnic stratification in homeowners advantage in self-rated health. Using the 2009 March Current Population Survey, regression results initially suggest that all homeowners experience a significant health advantage on average. However, this advantage is considerably larger for White homeowners. Under more rigorous examination, there is much less evidence for a non-White homeowner health advantage. The health advantage is 1.43 to 1.75 times smaller for Blacks than Whites, 1.35 to 1.56 times smaller for Latinos, and 1.21 to 1.27 times smaller for Asians. A secondary set of analyses on a sub-sample of the data reveals that this pattern varies among low-income households. There is more evidence for a significant health advantage for low-income non-White homeowners, and less inequality relative to Whites. The analyses provide evidence implying that remedying racial/ethnic inequalities in homeownership rates would not be sufficient to alleviate housing-related health disparities. More generally, it also points to the interactive nature of racial/ethnic stratification in the generation of health disparities through both access to and returns from socioeconomic resources.
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Authors: Finnigan, Ryan
Conference Name: Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association
Publisher Location: Atlanta, GA
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Health, Housing and Segregation, Race and Ethnicity
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