Social Benefits of Homeownership and Stable Housing

In addition to tangible financial benefits, research has shown that homeownership brings substantial social benefits for families, communities, and the country as a whole. Because of these societal benefits, policy makers have promoted homeownership through a number of channels. Homeownership has been an essential element of the American Dream for decades and continues to be so even today. Some of the documented social benefits include:

• Increased charitable activity
• Civic participation in both local community and national issues (including voting)
• Greater awareness of the political process
• Higher incidence of membership in voluntary organizations and church attendance
• Greater social capital generated
• Greater attachment to the neighborhood and neighbors
• Lower teen pregnancy by children’s living in owned homes
• Higher student test scores by children’s living in owned homes
• Higher rate of high school graduation thereby higher earnings
• Children more likely to participate in organized activities and have less television screen time
• Homeowners take on a greater responsibility such as home maintenance and acquiring the financial skills to handle mortgage payments and those skills transfer to their children
• Lower teenage delinquencies
• General increase in positive outlook to life
• Homeowners reported higher life satisfaction, higher self-esteem, happiness, and higher perceived control over their lives
• Better health outcomes, better physical and psychological health
• Tremendous wealth gains for homeowners under normal housing market conditions (outside of the terrible bubble/bust housing years)
• Homeowners not only experience a significant increase in housing satisfaction, but also obtain a higher satisfaction even in the same home in which they resided as renters
• Family financial situation and housing tenure during childhood and adulthood, impacted one’s self-rated health (in particular, the socioeconomic disadvantaged indicated by not being able to save any money or not owning or purchasing a home are less likely to self-rate their health as excellent or very good).
• Less likely to become crime victims
• Homeowners better maintain their homes, and high quality structures also raise mental health -renter-occupied housing appreciates less than owner-occupied housing
• Housing prices are higher in high-ownership neighborhoods
• Maintenance behavior of individual homeowners is influenced by those of their neighbors

For more information on the social benefits of homeownership, be sure to check out our "Homeownership Matters: Stats and Data" page as well as our "Field Guide to Social Benefits of Homeownership".