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JOINTCENTERFORHOUSINGSTUDIES
of Harvard University
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The Social Benefits and Costs of Homeownership:A Critical Assessment of the Research
LIHO-01.12October 2001William M. Rohe, Shannon Van Zandt and George McCarthy
Low-Income HomeownershipWorking PaperSeries
 
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Joint Center for Housing StudiesHarvard University
The Social Benefits and Costs of Homeownership:A Critical Assessment of the Research
William M. Rohe, Shannon Van Zandt and George McCarthyLIHO-01.12October 2001
© 2001 by William M. Rohe, Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies and Professor in theDepartment of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Shannon Van Zandt,doctoral candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;George McCarthy, Program Officer, for the Economic Development Department of the Ford Foundation. All rightsreserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission providedthat full credit, including copyright notice, is given to the source.An earlier version of this paper was a working paper for the Research Institute for Housing America. It waspresented at the Joint Center for Housing Studies’
Symposium on Low-Income Homeownership as an Asset-BuildingStrategy
held November 14-15, 2000, at Harvard University. The Symposium was funded by the Ford Foundation,Freddie Mac, and the Research Institute for Housing America.This paper, along with others prepared for the Symposium, will be published as a forthcoming book by theBrookings Institution and its Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy.All opinions expressed are those of the authors and not those of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, HarvardUniversity, the Ford Foundation, Freddie Mac, and the Research Institute for Housing America.
 
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Abstract
Interest in homeownership among Americans has been justified by claims that it confers benefitsboth to individuals and to the society as a whole, including good citizens, stable neighborhoodsand strong communities. This paper examines evidence for these claims. Strong and consistentevidence indicates that homeowners are more likely to: a) be satisfied with their homes andneighborhoods; b) participate in voluntary and political activities; and c) stay in their homeslonger, contributing to neighborhood stability. Evidence on several other purported positiveimpacts is sparse or inconclusive. Some of these positive impacts, however, may be limited tospecific populations or housing conditions. Further, some evidence suggests that under certaincondition, homeownership may have negative impacts, including damage to psychological orphysical health and decreased ability to escape distressed neighborhoods. The possibility of negative impacts suggests caution be taken when promoting homeownership, particularly amongthose less likely to be successful.
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