Renting to Owning : An Exploration of the Theory of Planned Behavior in the Homeownership Domain

This study extends the theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) to the domain of homeownership. We used a four-year longitudinal dataset of 919 low-and-moderate income (LMI) renters to explore factors associated with greater homeownership intentions and actual home purchases. Our findings provide strong support for the TPB. Favorable attitudes and subjective norms and greater perceptions of control were all associated with greater homeownership intentions. Homeownership intentions, in turn, predicted home purchases during the following year. The analysis included relevant demographic and economic variables, and the significance of income and geographic location suggests a distinction between respondents’ perceived versus actual control. Our use of a longitudinal panel dataset represents an important advance over much of the prior TPB literature, which tends to use cross-sectional designs and focus on short-term goals. We discuss implications for behavioral prediction using the TPB as well as implications for housing policy