Revisiting Cross-Tenure Differences in Home Maintenance and Conditions

Abstract

This paper investigates the relative maintenance levels of owner and renter-occupied housing by examining their short and long-run appreciation rates. A large data set that includes information on every parcel in Pinellas County, Florida is used to control for structural and locational differences. Standard repeat-sale index estimation procedures are extended to determine whether owner-occupied houses nominally appreciate faster than renter-occupied housing. If owner-occupied housing appreciates more than renter-occupied housing, this implies that it is filtering less and is being better maintained, assuming general equilibrium conditions apply. Contrary to previous work, we find only weak evidence to support the notion that long-term rates of appreciation are substantially different between owner and renter-occupied housing.

JEL Classification: R20