Language, Agglomeration, and Hispanic Homeownership

As of the fourth quarter of 2005, 76 percent of white non-Hispanic families owned homes, but only 50 percent of Hispanic families. We argue that low rates of homeownership in Hispanic communities create a self-reinforcing mechanism that contributes to this large disparity. In part, this occurs because proximity to other homeowners belonging to a family’s social network improves access to information about how to become a homeowner. Role model effects may also be relevant. We investigate these issues using household-level data on out-of-state movers from the 2000 Decennial Census. Three especially important results are obtained. First, proximity to Hispanic homeowners in the 1995 place of residence increases the propensity of a Hispanic family to own a home in 2000. Second, that effect is especially strong with respect to proximity to weak English speaking Hispanic homeowners. Third, these patterns hold regardless of the Hispanic family’s own ability to speak English. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that local programs designed to promote homeownership among weak English-speaking Hispanic families likely increase Hispanic homeownership beyond just the immediate program participants.Language, Agglomeration, Homeownership

The Influence of Household Formation on Homeownership Rates across Time and Race

Homeownership rates equal the number of households that own homes divided by the number of households in the population. Differences in the propensity to form a household, therefore, may contribute to changes in homeownership rates over time in addition to longstanding racial gaps in homeownership. We examine these issues on an age-specific basis using data from the 1970 to 2000 public use micro samples (PUMS) of the decennial census. Results indicate that lower headship rates tend to reduce homeownership rates. This pattern is most notable for individuals in their early and mid-20s. For these individuals, declining headship rates between 1970 and 2000 reduced homeownership rates by 3 to 5 percentage points. Moreover, year-2000 African American headship rates narrow white-black gaps in homeownership by roughly three percentage points, while year-2000 Hispanic headship rates widen white-Hispanic gaps in homeownership by two to three percentage points. Thus, controlling for differences in headship behavior, white-black homeownership gaps are somewhat more severe than previously recognized, but the reverse is true for white-Hispanic gaps.Household headship, Household formation, Homeownership rates, Racial gap in homeownership, Black-white differences

House Price Changes and Idiosyncratic Risk: The Impact of Property Characteristics

While the average change in house prices is related to changes in fundamentals or perhaps market-wide bubbles, not all houses in a market appreciate at the same rate. The primary focus of our study is to investigate the reasons for these variations in price changes among houses within a market. We draw on two theories for guidance, one related to the optimal search strategy for sellers of atypical dwellings and the other focusing on the bargaining process between a seller and potential buyers. We hypothesize that houses will appreciate at different rates depending on the characteristics of the property and the change in the strength of the housing market. These hypotheses are supported using data from three New Zealand housing markets.Atypicality, Bargaining, Housing Risk, House Price Appreciation, Search Models

On the Determinants of House Value Volatility

Few studies have analyzed the determinants of house value volatility at the level of individual houses. This paper uses two panels of the American Housing Survey covering 1974-2003 to test four hypotheses related to the determinants of house value volatility. The findings are that 1) house values at both ends of the quality distribution have greater variance than those with average quality levels, 2) the more atypical a house is, the greater the variance of house value, 3) the more highly "land leveraged" a house is, the greater the variance of its value, and 4) house values owned by minority households have greater variance than those of whites.

Homeownership Gaps Among Low-Income and Minority Households

While homeownership rates currently stand at historically high levels for all segments of the U.S. population, large gaps are present comparing various groups of the population. As of the third quarter of 2006, the non-Hispanic white homeownership rate was 76 percent while black and Hispanic homeownership rates were below 50 percent, and the Asian rate was 60 percent. The ownership gap between black and white households is larger in 2006 than 1990, while that between Hispanics and whites is only slightly smaller. Households with very-low income had a homeownership rate that was 37 percentage points below the rate for high-income households. These gaps have changed little over the last 50 years. The primary goal of this study is to synthesize what is known about the determinants of gaps in homeownership rates by income, racial, and ethnic status. We first present a conceptual framework for analyzing the determinants of homeownership. We then review the literature that identifies the relative importance of various contributing factors to observed homeownership gaps, separating the factors into those that are observed and those that are part of an unexplained residual that represents unmeasured factors such as discrimination, lack of information about the home buying and mortgage financing process, and omitted socio-economic variables.

The Demand for Educational Quality: Combining a Median Voter and Hedonic House Price Model

Communities differ in both the bundle of amenities offered to residents and the implicit price of these amenities. Thus, households are faced with a choice of which bundle to select when they select their residence. This choice implies households make tradeoffs among the amenities; that is, the amenities are substitutes or complements. We focus on estimating the demand for one of the most important amenities -- public school quality. We use transaction prices from the housing market and the hedonic house price model to generate the implicit prices of community amenities. The median voter model is used to estimate the income and price elasticities of demand for educational quality. We find that the own price elasticity of demand for schooling is about -0.5 and the income elasticity of demand is about 0.5. New findings include estimates of a set of cross-price elasticities of demand for school quality. We find that a community’s income level, percentage white households, and level of public safety are substitutes for school quality.

Affordability and the Value of Seller Financing

The typical methodology in valuing seller financing consists of calculating a discount -- the present value of the after-tax interest savings due to the creative financing --and including this variable, along with other characteristics of the purchased house, in an hedonic price equation explaining the house price actually paid. Resulting from this equation is a set of marginal prices corresponding to each characteristic of the house, including the quantity (discount) of creative finance accompanying the house. The central question usually addressed is whether the discount is fully capitalized in the value of the house -- whether the price of creative finance is unity. In our view, one should not ask what the price of creative finance is because this price, like that of other housing attributes, likely depends upon supply and demand conditions. We develop and estimate a model incorporating this dependency.

Local House Price Indexes: 1982-1991

We begin with a description of three house price panel data sets for the period 1982 to 1991. Next, we estimate a model that assumes the three sources are derived from an underlying unobserved price series, and we construct composite indexes that report house prices for 135 locations. These series can be used either as explanatory variables in studies of household formation, housing demand, and migration or to test models of the determinants of spatial and intertemporal variations in house prices. Finally, we construct regional series (based, alternatively, on census and Salomon Brothers regions) and two national aggregates and describe their movements. Our series are compared to other local, regional, and national series.

House Price Changes and Idiosyncratic Risk: The Impact of Property Characteristics

While the average change in house prices is related to changes in fundamentals or perhaps market-wide bubbles, not all houses in a market appreciate at the same rate.The primary focus of our study is to investigate the reasons for these variations in price changes among houses within a market. We draw on two theories for guidance, one related to the optimal search strategy for sellers of atypical dwellings and the other focusing on the bargaining process between a seller and potential buyers. We hypothesize that houses will appreciate at different rates depending on the characteristics of the property and the change in the strength of the housing market. These hypotheses are supported using data from three New Zealand housing markets.Atypicality; Bargaining; Housing Risk; House Price Appreciation; Search Models