A Note on the Benefits of Homeownership

This brief note adds to recent work that attempts to identify externalities associated with homeownership. The results suggest that some of the homeownership effect found in Green and White [5] is driven by family characteristics associated with homeownership, especially residential stability. However, as much as homeownership increases residential stability, it appears to be correlated with higher school attainment. Attempts to control for endogeneity cannot eliminate this finding. _____________________________ I thank Ann Ferris for her assistance and the editor for his comments. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or the Federal Reserve System.