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Intergenerational home ownership

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  • Blanden, Jo
  • Eyles, Andrew
  • Machin, Stephen

Abstract

This paper studies intergenerational links in home ownership, an increasingly important wealth marker and a measure of economic status in itself. Repeated cross sectional UK data show that home ownership rates have fallen rapidly over time, most markedly amongst younger people in more recent birth cohorts. Evidence from British birth cohorts data supplemented by the Wealth and Assets Survey show a significant rise through time in the intergenerational persistence of home ownership, as home ownership rates shrank disproportionately among those whose parents did not own their own home. Given the close connection between home ownership and wealth, these results on strengthening intergenerational persistence in home ownership are therefore also suggestive of a fall in intergenerational housing wealth mobility over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Blanden, Jo & Eyles, Andrew & Machin, Stephen, 2023. "Intergenerational home ownership," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118638, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:118638
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/118638/
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    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Van Langenhove, 2025. "Wealth Mobility in the United States: Empirical Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 25/1104, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    2. Buscha, Franz & Gorman, Emma & Sturgis, Patrick & Zhang, Min, 2025. "Ethnic differences in intergenerational housing mobility in England and Wales," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120674, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Kanabar, Ricky, 2024. "Assortative mating and wealth inequality in Great Britain: evidence from the baby boomer and Gen X cohorts," ISER Working Paper Series 2024-04, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Richard Disney & John Gathergood & Stephen Machin & Matteo Sandi & Steve Machin, 2024. "Human Capital from Childhood Exposure to Homeownership: Evidence from Right-to-Buy," CESifo Working Paper Series 11583, CESifo.
    5. Ricky Kanabar, 2024. "Assortative mating and wealth inequality in Great Britain: evidence from the baby boomer and Gen X cohorts," CEPEO Working Paper Series 24-07, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Nov 2024.
    6. Guido Neidhöfer & Leonardo Gasparini & Matias Ciaschi, "undated". "Intergenerational mobility of economic well-being in Latin America," Working Papers 620, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Lin, Ming-Jen & Nian, Huici, 2024. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Intergenerational wealth mobility in Taiwan," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Buscha, Franz & Gorman, Emma & Sturgis, Patrick & Zhang, Min, 2023. "Ethnic differences in intergenerational housing mobility in England and Wales," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1222 [rev.], Global Labor Organization (GLO), revised 2023.
    9. Gil-Hernández, Carlos J. & Salas-Rojo, Pedro & Vidal, Guillem & Villani, Davide, 2025. "Wealth and income stratification by social class in five European countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127479, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cohorts; housing; intergenerational mobility; wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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