American dream delayed : shifting determinants of homeownership

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of discrete choice for labor supply, fertility and transition from tenant to home-owner, to investigate the secular decline in homeownership over the past several decades, wholly attributable to households postponing the purchase of their first home. House prices only partly explain the decline; higher base level wages led to lower fertility also contributing to the decline, because households with children are more likely to own a home than those without. Somewhat surprisingly we find higher levels of female education ameliorated this trend, highly educated women placing greater value on home ownership.