The sustainability of low-income homeownership: the incidence of unexpected costs and needed repairs among low-income home buyers

Shannon Van Zandt and William M. Rohe

Housing Policy Debate, 2011, vol. 21, issue 2, 317-341

Abstract: Until the recent housing market crisis, the United States was producing first-time, low-income homeowners at an unprecedented rate. In a longitudinal study of low-income renters participating in a multi-site homeownership education program, we examine the ability of low-income homebuyers to pay housing related costs after home purchase, including maintenance or repairs costs. After less than two years of ownership, we find the sustainability of low-income homeownership in jeopardy for sizeable portion of home buyers. About half of the more than 350 new home owners surveyed face unexpected costs, and about a third confront home repairs they cannot afford. More than half carry greater non-housing debt, and about a quarter were 30 days late or more in debt repayment. The findings raise concerns about the long term sustainability of low-income homeownership and emphasize the importance of requiring effective pre-purchase services and effective and ongoing post-purchase counseling.

Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10511482.2011.576525 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:houspd:v:21:y:2011:i:2:p:317-341

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RHPD20

DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2011.576525

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Policy Debate is currently edited by Tom Sanchez, Susanne Viscarra and Derek Hyra

More articles in Housing Policy Debate from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().