Family formation, parental background and young adults’ first entry into homeownership in Britain and Germany

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

June 1, 2019

Summary:

Although previous research shows that family dynamics and parental socioeconomic status influence the timing of young adults? first entry into homeownership, much less is known about how the role of family factors may vary across countries with different housing systems. In this article, we use panel survey data from Britain and Germany to compare how family life course careers and parental socioeconomic background influence young adults? initial entry into homeownership in these two divergent national contexts. The results show that in Britain, first-time homeownership transitions are tightly synchronized with partnership formation. By contrast, in Germany first moves into homeownership typically occur later around or after the arrival of children. Parental owner-occupation accelerates entry into homeownership in both contexts, while the effects of other parental characteristics are relatively muted. Furthermore, the results highlight how individual socioeconomic factors are critical determinants of entering owner-occupation. This is particularly true in Britain where there is a strong socioeconomic gradient in first-time homeownership transitions.

Published in

Housing Studies

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 34 , p.974 -996

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2018.1509949

ISSN

2673037

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

#525403

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest