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Racial and ethnic representation in home ownership rates is an important public policy topic for addressing inequality within society. Although more than half of the households in the US are owned, rather than rented, the representation of home ownership is unequal among different racial and ethnic groups. Here we analyze the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data to conduct an exploratory and statistical analysis of home ownership in the US, and find sociodemographic factors that are associated with differences in home ownership rates. We use binomial and beta-binomial generalized linear models (GLMs) with 2020 county-level data to model the home ownership rate, and fit the beta-binomial models with Bayesian estimation. We determine that race/ethnic group, geographic region, and income all have significant associations with the home ownership rate. To make the data and results accessible to the public, we develop an Shiny web application in R with exploratory plots and model predictions.
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On the Impact of Federal Housing Policies on Racial Inequality
Using data on the value of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance between 1935 and 1939, I estimate the effect of the agency's program on racial disparities in home ownership and home values. The distance between an FHA office and counties within its jurisdiction is used as an instrument. I find that insurance activity had a negligible effect on the racial gap in home ownership and a sizable effect on the gap in home values. Results suggest that while African American households continued to acquire homes, they may have chosen lower-priced properties, as they lacked the same access to credit as White buyers.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2105253
- PAR ID:
- 10335402
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- AEA Papers and Proceedings
- Volume:
- 112
- ISSN:
- 2574-0768
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 229 to 233
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20221105
