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Title: Cohort Trends in Housing and Household Formation Since 1990
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2013
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Abstract: Many Americans want to own their own home. Indeed, survey data reveal that the vast majority of individuals under age 45 expect to purchase a home sometime during their lives, despite the drop in household wealth from the recent housing market crash (Belsky 2013). Homeownership confers social and economic benefits, including tax advantages, “forced” savings, and wealth accumulation – assuming prices rise. The rate of home ownership is often used as a barometer to measure the nation’s overall housing health. When compared over time, home ownership can track the achievements of successive cohorts of adults at the same life-stage and indicate the direction of intergenerational mobility - whether up or down. The conventional home ownership rate, however, can produce misleading conclusions because it is based on households rather than individuals (Yu and Myers 2010). That is, it does not consider those adults who cannot financially establish households on their own, but live with others. Consequently, I analyze “headship” patterns in addition to homeownership when we assess cohorts’ progress in housing – who is able to become established as head of an independent household, at what point in their life cycle, and then potentially become a homeowner. When I analyze the situation in this way, the evidence is overwhelming that recent cohorts face great disadvantages and generational inequalities in home ownership are growing dramatically.
Url: https://s4.ad.brown.edu/Projects/Diversity/data/report/report10092013.pdf
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Authors: Anderson, Margo; Bianchi, Suzanne; Bluestone, Barry; Danziger, Sheldon; Fischer, Claude; Lichter, Daniel; Prewitt, Kenneth; Rosenbaum, Emily
Publisher: US2010 Discover America in a New Century
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Health
Countries: United States