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Employment Access, Residential Location and Homeownership

Yongheng Deng, Stephen L. Ross, Susan M. Wachter
1999
Abstract: 
Large racial differences in home ownership have been a source of considerable concern among policymakers because homeownership choice may influence wealth accumulation, labor market outcomes, and even children's educational outcomes. Racial differences in ownership rates may be affected by discrimination (Kain and Quigley, 1972), and extensive literatures examine real estate broker and mortgage lender treatment of minorities, see for example Yinger (1992) and Munnell et. al. (1996). In a direct examination of the ownership choice, Linneman and Wachter (1989) find no significant racial differences in ownership among households who are not wealth constrained in terms of standard downpayment requirements, but Gyourko, Linneman, and Wachter (1997a) find that among constrained households whites are more likely to own than equivalent minorities.