Homeownership in United States

United States

Housing is an essential component of health and well-being. Homeownership provides a sense of stability and safety by preventing frequent moves and minimizing the financial burdens associated with renting. Additionally, homeownership plays an important role in wealth accumulation, which is a major determining factor of health and income inequality. Homeownership provides an opportunity for individuals to build wealth for themselves and their families. Low-income households, in particular, may accumulate wealth more successfully through homeownership than through other means. 

According to America’s Health Rankings data, homeownership is significantly lower among non-Hispanic Black, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic adults compared with non-Hispanic white adults. Racial segregation and mortgage discrimination have historically kept Black Americans from purchasing houses. Low-income and racial/ethnic minority households are more likely to transition from owning back to renting than high-income white households and are less likely to regain ownership. 

Homeownership is also lower among younger adults compared with older adults.

Strategies to ensure greater access to homeownership include: 

• Providing information and knowledge about the homebuying process, especially to low-income and racial/ethnic minority households. 
• Expanding financial subsidies for down payments or housing reparations to increase purchasing power among low-income households.
• Reforming the current federal tax policy to use a tax credit rather than a deduction, which would increase tax benefits from purchasing a house. 
• Expanding financial support for low-income homeowners to prevent them from transitioning back to renting. 
• Enforcing fair housing laws to protect racial/ethnic minority buyers from discrimination. 

Homeownership carries more risk for low-income homeowners than high-income homeowners. Policies made to encourage homeownership among low-income families requires a foundation of protection against financial risk. Selling decisions need to be made fairly so that homeowners can finance their mortgage and generate a positive return. 

Healthy People 2030 identifies housing instability as a key issue within the Economic Stability domain of the social determinants of health. 

Boehm, Thomas P., and Alan Schlottmann. “Wealth Accumulation and Homeownership: Evidence for Low-Income Households.” Cambridge, MA: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, December 2004. https://www.huduser.gov/publications/pdf/wealthaccumulationandhomeownership.pdf.

Carroll, Daniel R., and Ross Cohen-Kristiansen. “Evaluating Homeownership as the Solution to Wealth Inequality.” Economic Commentary  (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland), December 20, 2021, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-202122.

Herbert, Christopher E., Shannon Rieger, and Jonathan Spader. “Expanding Access to Homeownership as a Means of Fostering Residential Integration and Inclusion.” In A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2017. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/media/imp/a_shared_future_expanding_access_to_homeownership_fostering_inclusion.pdf.

Krisberg, Kim. “Income Inequality: When Wealth Determines Health: Earnings Influential as Lifelong Social Determinant of Health.” The Nation’s Health 46, no. 8 (October 2016): 1–17. https://www.thenationshealth.org/content/46/8/1.1.

Rolfe, Steve, Lisa Garnham, Jon Godwin, Isobel Anderson, Pete Seaman, and Cam Donaldson. “Housing as a Social Determinant of Health and Wellbeing: Developing an Empirically-Informed Realist Theoretical Framework.” BMC Public Health 20, no. 1 (December 2020): 1138. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09224-0.