Housing Careers into Adulthood and Midlife Wealth Disparities

• In Event: 1164 - Homeownership and the Reproduction of Inequality

Abstract

Prior research has provided insights into the diverse experiences of timing and pathways of residential transitions into adulthood. However, existing studies generally treat residential transitions as outcomes per se and seldom go beyond the young adulthood years. It thus remains unclear as to how the processes through which young adults leave parental homes and acquire home-ownership differ among individuals, and whether these processes are linked to their long-term socioeconomic well-being. Drawing upon five decades of longitudinal cohort survey data, this study uses sequence analysis to identify the typical housing tenure trajectories in young adulthood, which differ systematically by parental housing tenure of departure, permanence of rental housing, timing as well as the pace of home-ownership acquisition (if at all). As hypothesized, this study finds persistent path dependencies between earlier housing trajectories and midlife wealth accumulation, for housing or non-housing wealth alike. The findings highlight the long reach of residential transitions to adulthood and make a strong case for future works to improve upon the binary view of home-ownership.

Author

• Qian He, University of Wisconsin-Madison