Cohort progress toward household formation and homeownership: young immigrant cohorts in Los Angeles and Toronto compared

Abstract

As immigrants adapt to their new country, they experience both increased access to homeownership and an increase in independent household formation. This paper examines residential assimilation, as measured by homeownership and household formation, among five young immigrant cohorts in Los Angeles and Toronto over a five-year period in the early 2000s. Results show that while differences between groups are evident already at the beginning of the study period, residential assimilation occurs for all groups over time, relative to the native-born. This assimilation, however, seems to occur differently by group; the Chinese, for example, attain high homeownership rates by creating relatively few households, whereas black immigrants form many more households but much lower homeownership rates, over time. Comparing across countries, immigrants consistently have lower rates of household formation and mostly higher homeownership levels in Toronto than they do in Los Angeles.