The Impact of Home Ownership on Mobility and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Current Population Survey (2005 to 2008)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of home ownership on mobility and three labor market outcomes – unemployment, under-employment, and duration of unemployment in the United States over the 2005 to 2008 time period. The model used in this paper allows for estimation of a separate home ownership coefficient in 2008 to reflect the simultaneous recession and housing crisis. In general, homeowners tend to have more favorable labor market outcomes than renters even after accounting for socio-economic factors like education, marriage, and age. The recession and housing price decrease of 2008 made Americans less likely to relocate and this effect was larger for homeowners than for renters. Under-employment was the only one of three labor market outcomes that worsened for homeowners relative to renters in 2008.

Keywords: homeownership, migration, mobility, unemployment, under-employment duration of unemployment

JEL Classification: R31, E24, J6, J64