Homeownership, house prices, and marriage stability

William G. Hardin, Mingzhi Hu and Zhenguo Lin

Real Estate Economics, 2025, vol. 53, issue 6, 1309-1338

Abstract: This article investigates the relationships among marital stability, divorce, homeownership, and housing prices. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that, after controlling for observables, homeownership is associated with a 23% reduction in the overall divorce rate. Our results also indicate that while homeownership promotes marital stability, rising housing prices increase the likelihood of divorce for homeowners relative to renters. These findings suggest that increased real estate values provide financial flexibility, potentially easing the economic frictions typically associated with divorce, including the need to acquire alternative housing.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.70006

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:bla:reesec:v:53:y:2025:i:6:p:1309-1338

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1080-8620

Access Statistics for this article

Real Estate Economics is currently edited by Crocker Liu, N. Edward Coulson and Walter Torous

More articles in Real Estate Economics from American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().