 The housing bubble and the evolution of the homeownership gapPhillip Michael Oberg The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 2017, vol. 65, issue C, 25-35 Abstract: The gap in the white/non-white homeownership rate diverged over the entire course of the recent housing-related business cycle. After controlling for a rich set of factors determining the willingness and ability to own a home, I find that the divergence during the bust can be almost completely explained by observables, where the primary contributor is family structure, particularly marriage. While the explained portion of the divergence during the boom is smaller, it is also almost entirely driven by marriage. Financial variables and education of borrowers also contribute and are consistent with explanations involving excessive risk-taking and lack of experience and search in the mortgage market by minorities. The contribution of the unexplained portion of the divergence is only noteworthy during the boom, most likely attributable to unobserved factors—such as the expectations of whites regarding earnings and asset growth—rather than discrimination. Keywords: Homeownership; Inequality; Family structure; Discrimination; Business cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:65:y:2017:i:c:p:25-35 DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2016.11.003 Access Statistics for this article The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance is currently edited by R. J. Arnould and J. E. Finnerty More articles in The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance from Elsevier |
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