Homeowning, Social Outcomes, Tenure Choice, and U.S. Housing PolicyAbstractFor nearly two centuries, American policymakers have extolled the virtues of homeownership.¹ These policymakers have suggested that homeowning produces both better citizens and better communities, and therefore a better society.Yet only recently have researchers attempted to determine whether tenure per se influences outcomes, and if so, the size of that influence. If homeowning produces positive social benefits, it makes sense to give people an incentive to become homeowners. That said, from a policy standpoint, it only makes sense to provide incentives to those who otherwise would not become homeowners; giving homeowning subsidies to those who would be owners even in the absence of such subsidies leads to neither economically efficient nor socially desirable outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to look briefly at links between policies and outcomes. It will begin by reviewing briefly the literature on the influence of tenure choice on various social outcomes. It will follow this with a brief discussion of tenure choice itself: a description of why people choose to be owners or renters. Finally, it will look at policies that are designed to enhance the ability of people to become homeowners. The views expressed here are completely personal. ¹For a series of quotations, see Green and White (1997). Homeowning, Social Outcomes, Tenure Choice, and U.S. Housing Policy (*.pdf)
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