acquisition capital; asset-based welfare; financialization of everyday life; homeownership; housing wealth; Young people; Environmental Science (miscellaneous); Sociology and Political Science; Urban Studies
Abstract :
[en] What resources help young people secure homeownership and housing wealth? We combine findings from two literatures, one which emphasizes the role of income, education, and inheritances and one which emphasizes the role of financial strategies, to evaluate whether a more comprehensive set of resources help young people aged 18–45 navigate the housing market in the United States. Using the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and through logistic and Heckman regressions, we identify three main findings. First, financial strategies such as financial knowledge, credit card access, and financial risk-taking help explain homeownership and housing wealth for young people, over and above traditionally studied household and family resources. These are especially important for middle-income households. Second, different financial strategies matter for homeownership versus housing wealth. Third, ‘optimal’ financial strategies like good savings habits may not always be associated with success in the housing market. Combined, these findings imply that while in theory young people can leverage resources beyond their own income or the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, in practice the ideal combination is complex. To capture this complexity, we introduce the term ‘acquisition capital’ to represent the multiple sets of resources that young people leverage to secure homeownership and housing wealth.
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others Social work & social policy Law, criminology & political science: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
FLYNN, Lindsay ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC) > Political Science
KOSTECKI, Sarah ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences > Department of Social Sciences > Team Lindsay FLYNN
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
Acquisition capital: using a new concept to explore housing outcomes among millennials in the United States
Aalbers, M. B. (2008) The financialization of home and the mortgage market crisis, Competition & Change, 12, pp. 148–166.
Artle, R. & Varaiya, P. (1978) Life cycle consumption and homeownership, Journal of Economic Theory, 18, pp. 38–58.
Adkins, L., Cooper, M. & Konigs, M. (2020) The Asset Economy (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Allison, P. (2012) When can you safely ignore multicollinearity? Statistical Horizons. Available at https://statisticalhorizons.com/multicollinearity/
Ammerman, D. A. & Stueve, C. (2019) Childhood financial socialization and debt-related financial well-being indicators in adulthood, Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, 30, pp. 213–230.
Arundel, R. (2017) Equity inequity: Housing wealth inequality, inter and intra-generational divergences, and the rise of private landlordism, Housing, Theory and Society, 34, pp. 176–200.
Barakova, I., Bostic, R. W., Calem, P. S. & Wachter, S. M. (2003) Does credit quality matter for homeownership? Journal of Housing Economics, 12, pp. 318–336.
Barakova, I., Calem, P. S. & Wachter, S. M. (2014) Borrowing constraints during the housing bubble, Journal of Housing Economics, 24, pp. 4–20.
Bendall, C. (2022) A family affair: The role of intergenerational norm transfer in shaping finances in adult relationships, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 44, pp. 144–168.
Bhutta, N., Bricker, J., Chang, A. C., Dettling, L. J., Goodman, S., Hsu, J. W., Moore, K. B., Reber, S., Volz, A. H. & Windle, R. A. (2020a) Changes in U.S. Family finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the survey of consumer finances, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances, 106, pp. 1–42.
Bhutta, N., Chang, A. C., Dettling, L. J. & Hsu, J. W. (2020b) Disparities in wealth by race and ethnicity in the 2019 survey of consumer finances, FEDS Notes. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September 28, 2020. doi: 10.17016/2380-7172.2797
Bond, S. A. & Eriksen, M. D. (2021) The role of parents on the home ownership experience of their children: Evidence from the health and retirement study, Real Estate Economics, 49, pp. 433–458.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital (English version), in J.C. Richardson (Ed) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, pp. 241–258 (Westport, CT: Greenwood).
Bricker, J. & Thompson, J. (2016) Does education loan debt influence household financial distress? An assessment using the 2007–2009 survey of consumer finances panel, Contemporary Economic Policy, 34, pp. 660–677.
Brown, B. & Caldwell, S. (2013) Young student loan borrowers retreat from housing and auto markets. Available at http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2013/ 04/young-student-loan-borrowers-retreat-from-housing-and-auto-markets.html#.VZRZKk3bKM8 (accessed 15 April 2022).
Bogardus Drew, R. (2014) Believing in Homeownership: Behavioural Drivers of Housing Tenure Decisions, Working paper no. 14-3. Cambridge: Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
Campbell, J. Y. (2006) Household finance, The Journal of Finance, 61, pp. 1553–1604.
Cook, J. (2021) Keeping it in the family: Understanding the negotiation of intergenerational transfers for entry into homeownership, Housing Studies, 36, pp. 1193–1211.
Coulter, R. (2018) Parental background and housing outcomes in young adulthood, Housing Studies, 33, pp. 201–223.
Crawford, J. & McKee, K. (2018) Hysteresis: Understanding the housing aspirations gap, Sociology, 52, pp. 182–197.
Crouch, C. (2009) Privatised keynesianism: An unacknowledged policy regime, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11, pp. 382–399.
Davidson, R. (2012) The emergence of popular personal finance magazines and the risk shift in American society, Media, Culture & Society, 34, pp. 3–20.
Dewilde, C. & Flynn, L. B. (2021) Post-crisis developments in young adults’ housing wealth, Journal of European Social Policy, 31, pp. 580–596.
Doling, J. & Ronald, R. (2010) Home ownership and asset-based welfare, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 25, pp. 165–173.
Federal Reserve. (n.d) Standard error calculations. Available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/files/standard_error_documentation.pdf
Fisher, J. D. M. & Gervais, M. (2011) Why has homeownership fallen among the young?, International Economic Review, 52, pp. 883–912.
Flynn, L. & Schwartz, H. M. (2017) No exit: Social reproduction in an era of rising income inequality, Politics & Society, 45, pp. 471–503.
Gibson-Davis, C. M. & Percheski, C. (2018) Children and the elderly: Wealth inequality among america’s dependents, Demography, 55, pp. 1009–1032.
Guiso, L. & Jappelli, T. (2002) Private transfers, borrowing constraints and the timing of homeownership, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 34, pp. 315–339.
Hackel, E. & Shan, H. (2014) Millennials: The Housing Edition (New York, NY: Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research).
Hacker, J. S. (2004) Privatizing risk without privatizing the welfare state: The hidden politics of social policy retrenchment in the United States, American Political Science Review, 98, pp. 243–260.
Haffner, M. E., Ong, R., Smith, S. J. & Wood, G. A. (2017) The edges of home ownership–the borders of sustainability, International Journal of Housing Policy, 17, pp. 169–176.
Hendershott, P. H., Ong, R., Wood, G. A. & Flatau, P. (2009) Marital history and homeownership: Evidence from Australia, Journal of Housing Economics, 18, pp. 13–24.
Hira, T. K. (1997) Financial attitudes, beliefs and behaviours: Differences by age, Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics, 21, pp. 271–290.
Huber, C. (n.d) In the spotlight: Interpreting models for log transformed outcomes. Stata News32. Available at https://www.stata.com/stata-news/news34-2/spotlight/ (accessed 2 March 2022).
Horioka, C. Y. & Niimi, Y. (2020) Was the expansion of housing credit in Japan good or bad? Japan and the World Economy, 53, pp. 100996.
Kear, M. (2017) Playing the credit score game: Algorithms, ‘positive’ data and the personification of financial objects, Economy and Society, 46, pp. 346–368.
Kemeny, J. (1980) Home ownership and privatisation, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 4, pp. 372–388.
Köppe, S. & Searle, B. (2017) Housing wealth and welfare over the life course, in: R. Ronald & C. Dewilde (Eds) Housing Wealth and Welfare, pp. 85–107 (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing).
Köppe, S. (2018) Passing it on: Inheritance, coresidence and the influence of parental support on homeownership and housing pathways, Housing Studies, 33, pp. 224–246.
Langley, P. (2008) The Everyday Life of Global Finance: Saving and Borrowing in Anglo- America (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Lee, H., Myers, D., Painter, G., Thunell, J. & Zissimopoulos, J. (2020) The role of parental financial assistance in the transition to homeownership by young adults, Journal of Housing Economics, 47, pp. 101597.
Lee, S. T. & Kim, K. T. (2022) A decomposition analysis of racial/ethnic differences in financial knowledge and overconfidence, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 43, pp. 815–831.
Li, S., Li, J. & Ouyang, A. Y. (2017) Housing and Household Wealth Inequality: Evidence from the People’s Republic of China, Working paper no. 671. Tokyo, Japan: Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).
Lux, M., Samec, T., Bartos, V., Sunega, P., Palguta, J., Boumová, I. & Kážmér, L. (2018) Who actually decides? Parental influence on the housing tenure choice of their children, Urban Studies, 55, pp. 406–426.
Maman, D. & Rosenhek, Z. (2020) Facing future uncertainties and risks through personal finance: Conventions in financial education, Journal of Cultural Economy, 13, pp. 303–317.
Martin, R. (2002) Financialization of Daily Life (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press).
Martinez, B. & Aja, A. (2021) How race counts for latinx homeownership, Critical Sociology, 47, pp. 993–1011.
McKee, K. (2012) Young people, homeownership and future welfare, Housing Studies, 27, pp. 853–862.
Mezza, A., Ringo, D., Sherlund, S. & Sommer, K. (2020) Student loans and homeownership, Journal of Labor Economics, 38, pp. 215–260.
Mulder, C. H. & Smits, A. (2013) Inter-generational ties, financial transfers, and home-ownership support, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 28, pp. 95–112.
National Association of Realtors. (2021) Profile of home buyers and sellers (Snapshot). Available at https://cdn.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2021-highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers-11-11-2021.pdf.
Nielsen, R. B. (2015) SCF Complex Sample Specification for Stata Technical Note (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Department of Financial Planning Housing and Consumer Economics). Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291814973_SCF_Complex_Sample_Specification_for_Stata.
Pierson, P. (2001) New Politics of the Welfare State (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Putnam, R. (1993) The prosperous community: Social capital and public life, The American Prospect, 13, pp. 35–42.
Ong, R., Parkinson, S., Searle, B. A., Smith, S. J. & Wood, G. A. (2013) Channels from housing wealth to consumption, Housing Studies, 28, pp. 1012–1036.
Ratiu, G. (2021) First time buyers embrace homeownership in challenging 2021 market, Realtor.com. March 25. Available at https://www.realtor.com/research/prospective-first-time-buyers-homeownership-2021 (accessed 15 February 2022).
Robertson-Rose, L. (2020) ‘Because My father told me to’: Exploratory insights into parental influence on the retirement savings behavior of adult children, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 41, pp. 364–376.
Ronald, R., Druta, O. & Godzik, M. (2018) Japan’s urban singles: Negotiating alternatives to family households and standard housing pathways, Urban Geography, 39, pp. 1018–1040.
Ronald, R. & Lennartz, C. (2018) Housing careers, intergenerational support, and family relations, Housing Studies, 33, pp. 147–159.
Ronald, R., Lennartz, C. & Kadi, J. (2017) What ever happened to asset-based welfare? Shifting approaches to housing wealth and welfare security, Policy & Politics, 45, pp. 173–193.
Savage, M. (2015) Social Class in the 21st Century. (London: Penguin UK).
Shapiro, J. M. (2021) Common Cents: An analysis of financial literacy and socioeconomic mobility in the United States, Master’s Thesis, Georgetown University.
Shim, S., Barber, B. L., Card, N. A., Xiao, J. J. & Serido, J. (2010) Financial socialization of First-Year college students: The roles of parents, work, and education, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, pp. 1457–1470.
Smith, S. J., Clark, W. A., Ong Vifor, J, R., Wood, G. A. Lisowski, W. & Truong, N. K. (2022) Housing and economic inequality in the long run: The retreat of owner occupation, Economy and Society, 51, pp. 161–186.
Sorensen, A. (2002) The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty-first Century (London: Routledge).
Squires, G., Lowies, B., Rossini, P. & Mcgreal, S. (2022) Locked out: Generational inequalities of housing tenure and housing type, Property Management, 40, pp. 510–526.
US Federal Reserve (n.d) About the survey of consumer finances (SCF). Available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/aboutscf.htm (accessed 12 December 2022).
Ullah, S. & Yusheng, K. (2020) Financial socialization, childhood experiences and financial Well-Being: The mediating role of locus of control, Frontiers in Psychology, 11, pp. 2162.
van der Zwan, N. (2014) Making sense of financialization, Socio-Economic Review, 12, pp. 99–129.
Xu, Y., Johnson, C., Bartholomae, S., O’Neill, B. & Gutter, M. S. (2015) Homeownership among millennials: The deferred American dream? Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 44, pp. 201–212.
Van Kerm, P. (2017) Estimation and inferences for quantiles and indices of inequality and poverty with survey data. 2017 UK Stata Users Group meeting, London, September 7-8, 2017. Available at https://www.stata.com/meeting/uk17/slides/uk17_VanKerm.pdf.
Ward, S. (1974) Consumer socialization, Journal of Consumer Research, 1, pp. 1–14.
Webley, P. & Nyhus, E. K. (2006) Parents’ influence on children’s future orientation and saving, Journal of Economic Psychology, 27, pp. 140–164.
Whitehead, C. & Williams, P. (2017) Changes in the Regulation and Control of Mortgage Markets and Access to Owner-occupation among Younger Households. Working paper no. 196. Paris, France: OECD, Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers, No. 196.
Williams, R. B. (2017) Wealth privilege and the racial wealth gap: A case study in economic stratification, The Review of Black Political Economy, 44, pp. 303–325.
Wong, K. & Herman, L. (2020) Market Snapshot: First-time Homebuyers (Washington, DC: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).
Wood, G., Parkinson, S., Searle, B. & Smith, S. J. (2013) Motivations for equity borrowing: A welfare-switching effect, Urban Studies, 50, pp. 2588–2607.