Does home ownership vary by sexual orientation?

Christopher Jepsen and Lisa Jepsen ()

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2009, vol. 39, issue 3, 307-315

Abstract: The housing literature considers whether the probability of owning a home is different for ethnic and racial minorities than for native whites. Most studies find that minorities are less likely to own a home than their white counterparts. A logical extension of this line of research is to consider whether home-ownership rates differ based on sexual orientation. We use data on couples from the 2000 Census and find that same-sex couples are less likely to own a home than are married couples. The average value of houses owned by same-sex male couples is statistically similar to the average value of houses owned by married couples, but houses owned by same-sex female and cohabiting couples have lower average values than those owned by married couples. Conditional on owning, same-sex couples are slightly less likely to have a mortgage compared to married couples.

Keywords: Home; ownership; Housing; demand; Same-sex; couples; Marriage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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