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

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.

An econometric analysis of borrowing constraints and household debt

Consumer credit

Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America’s Future Downtowns Be Rich?

This paper identifies a new factor, the age of the housing stock, that affects where high- and low-income neighborhoods are located in U.S. cities. High-income households, driven by a high demand for housing services, will tend to locate in areas of the city where the housing stock is relatively young. Because cities develop and redevelop from the center outward over time, the location of these neighborhoods varies over the city’s history. The model predicts a suburban location for the rich in an initial period, when young dwellings are found only in the suburbs, while predicting eventual gentrification once central redevelopment creates a young downtown housing stock. Empirical work indicates that if the influence of spatial variation in dwelling ages were eliminated, longstanding central city/suburban disparities in neighborhood economic status would be reduced by up to 50 percent. Model estimates further predict that between 2000 and 2020, central-city/suburban differences in economic status will widen somewhat in smaller cities but narrow sharply in the largest American cities as they become more gentrified.

The geography of entrepreneurship in the New York metropolitan area

This article was presented at a conference organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2005, "Urban Dynamics in New York City." The goal of the conference was threefold: to examine the historical transformations of the engine-of-growth industries in New York and distill the main determinants of the city's historical dominance as well as the challenges to its continued success; to study the nature and evolution of immigration flows into New York; and to analyze recent trends in a range of socioeconomic outcomes, both for the general population and recent immigrants more specifically.Business enterprises - New York (N.Y.) ; Economic conditions - New York (N.Y.) ; Federal Reserve District, 2nd ; Urban economics

Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America's Future Downtowns be Rich?

This paper identifies a new factor, the age of the housing stock, that affects where high- and low-income neighborhoods are located in U.S. cities. High-income households, driven by a high demand for housing services, will tend to locate in areas of the city where the housing stock is relatively young. Because cities develop and redevelop from the center outward over time, the location of these neighborhoods varies over the city’s history. The model predicts a suburban location for the rich in an initial period, when young dwellings are found only in the suburbs, while predicting eventual gentrification once central redevelopment creates a young downtown housing stock. Empirical work indicates that if the influence of spatial variation in dwelling ages were eliminated, longstanding central city/suburban disparities in neighborhood economic status would be reduced by up to 50 percent. Model estimates further predict that between 2000 and 2020, central-city/suburban differences in economic status will widen somewhat in smaller cities but narrow sharply in the largest American cities as they become more gentrified.spatial expansion of cities, housing cycles, urban expansion

Borrowing constraints, household debt, and racial discrimination in loan markets

Housing - Finance ; Discrimination in mortgage loans

Secondary Markets, Risk, and Access to Credit Evidence from the Mortgage Market

Secondary markets for credit are widely believed to improve efficiency and increase access to credit. In part, this is because of their greater ability to manage risk. However, the degree to which secondary markets expand access to credit is virtually unknown. Using the mortgage market as an example, we begin to fill that gap. Our conceptual model suggests that secondary credit markets have potentially ambiguous effects on interest rates, but unambiguous positive effects on the number of loans issued. We focus our empirical analysis on the latter using 1992-2004 HMDA files for conventional, conforming, home purchase loans in conjunction with Census tract data

Homeownership Boom and Bust 2000 to 2009: Where Will the Homeownership Rate Go from Here?

The increase in the homeownership rate in the middle of the last decade extended to all age groups but was most pronounced among individuals under age 30. These increases coincided with looser credit conditions that enhanced household access to mortgage credit along with evidence of less risk averse attitudes towards investment in homeownership. Following the crash, these trends have reversed and homeownership rates have largely reverted back to the levels of 2000. The drop in the homeownership rate from an all-time high of 69.2 in 2004 to 66.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 reflects a decline from unsustainable levels to something closer to historical averages, and while the homeownership rate may have bottomed out, it could fall another one or two percentage points due to tightened credit and other factors