Housing News

Study: the effect of homeownership on children

Homeownership has been threatened in America in recent years, with staggering foreclosure rates, which has many wondering what role homeownership actually plays in a child’s life.

Published

6 years ago

October 23, 2012

Tara Steele

New study about homeownership’s effects on children

Over the years, various independent researchers have concluded that homeownership has a more positive impact on children than does renting, which is backed up by professors Richard K. Green and Gary D. Painter at the University of Southern California and Michelle J. White at the University of San Diego whose new research looks at the data before and after the housing crash to compare the two.

The researchers found that homeownership is associated with lower high school dropout rates by 2.6 percent, and the teen birth rate nationally is 5.0 percent lower.

Additionally, the study reveals that The impact of homeownership is particularly important for households with short lengths of tenure. Some had suggested that prior findings regarding the benefits of homeownership were simply due to a more stable housing situation, not necessarily ownership. These findings indicate that homeownership matters, particularly over the short term.

The impact of skin in the game

Interestingly, the size of the down payment has little effect on the outcomes for children, except when borrowers put no money down, at which point the outcomes become indistinguishable from those for renters.

The report says that parents’ marital status, income, race or age of the mother when the child was born had little effect on outcomes, after controlling for parental education, homeownership and other household characteristics.

“In a study conducted 15 years ago, we found that children of homeowners fared better than children of renters. The devastating housing bust and its aftermath led us to question whether such findings would continue to hold up. This study confirmed those findings and produced interesting new results,” said Dr. Green, Director and Chair of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Green added, “What we were surprised to discover in this study was that outcomes for children are not affected by the size of down payment. We suspected that more ‘skin in the game’ by a parent would produce better outcomes for children yet we did not find that to be true, unless there is no skin in the game at all.”

The study was based on an analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and was sponsored by the Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), the independent research foundation of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), and is recognized in the industry as a reliable resource.

Does homeownership make someone a better person?

“Does buying a home make you a better person? No, but the discipline associated with saving for even a small downpayment and subsequently managing a house is, on average, associated with the discipline needed to promote better outcomes for children,” said Dr. Green. “Other factors one might be inclined to assume would affect outcomes for children but had no measurable effect in our study are parents’ marital status, income, race or age of the mother when the child was born. As we might expect, a parent’s educational attainment is an important predictor of a child’s educational success.”

^{Full study: “Measuring the Benefits of Homeowning: Effects on Children Redux”}

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Tara Steele

Tara Steele is the News Director at The American Genius, covering entrepreneur, real estate, technology news and everything in between. If you'd like to reach Tara with a question, comment, press release or hot news tip, simply click the link below.

3 Comments

RussBergeronMRED

October 23, 2012 at 7:14 pm

My guess is that you would probably get the same results if you did the study based upon income instead of home ownership.

Reply
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Austin

Austin tops the list of best places to buy a home

When looking to buy a home, taking the long view is important before making such a huge investment – where are the best places to make that commitment?

Published

4 years ago

May 29, 2015

Lani Rosales

Looking at the bigger picture

(REALUOSO.COM) – Let us first express that although we are completely biased about Texas (we’re headquartered here, I personally grew up here), the data is not – Texas is the best. That’s a scientific fact. There’s a running joke in Austin that if there is a list of “best places to [anything],” we’re on it, and the joke causes eye rolls instead of humility (we’re sore winners and sore losers in this town).

That said, SelfStorage.com dug into the data and determined that the top 12 places to buy a home are currently Texas and North Carolina (and Portland, I guess you’re okay too or whatever).

They examined the nerdiest of numbers from the compound annual growth rate in inflation-adjusted GDP to cost premium, affordability, taxes, job growth, and housing availability.

“Buying a house is a big decision and a big commitment,” the company notes. “Although U.S. home prices have risen in the long term, the last decade has shown that path is sometimes full of twists, turns, dizzying heights and steep, abrupt falls. Today, home prices are stabilizing and increasing in most areas of the U.S.”

Click here to continue reading the list of the 12 best places to buy a home…

Housing News

Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?

With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.

Published

4 years ago

March 2, 2015

Dawn Brotherton

The average home age is higher than ever

(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.

With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.

Prices of new homes on the rise

Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.

Click here to continue reading this story…

Housing News

Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?

The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.

Published

4 years ago

February 25, 2015

Lani Rosales

Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes

(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.

Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.

So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.

1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues

It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.

Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.