Shared Equity Housing: Cultural Understanding and the Meaning of Ownership

Abstract:     
In this paper I examine whether shared equity limitations that are sometimes applied to subsidized affordable housing creates for the owners of such housing a second class ownership status. I conclude that they do not. In support of this conclusion, I look at the meaning of property from both cultural and historical perspectives. I argue that property and ownership are culturally constructed concepts that are understood differently in different cultures and in the same culture over time. I examine the series of limitations that have been placed on property in industrial societies and argue that the limitation on equity is just another in a long list of limitations that society has imposed on ownership in favor of a supervening social good, in this case, the preservation of affordable housing for future generations of low-income homeowners.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 25

Keywords: Property, Affordable housing, Low-income homeowners, Subsidized housing, Shared equity

JEL Classification: K11, K19

Accepted Paper Series