Abstract
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.
Highlights
In many countries, entering homeownership for the first time is a major life course step that often has significant implications for disposable income, debt and wealth holdings, residential conditions and perceived social status
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 many countries, reduced rates of homeownership in young adulthood have revived interest in the links between family processes and housing careers. In countries such as the UK, concerns have been voiced that enhanced difficulty accessing owner-occupation is decoupling family dynamics from housing careers by forcing less advantaged young people to form families in the private rental sector (Berrington & Stone, 2017)
Summary
In many countries, entering homeownership for the first time is a major life course step that often has significant implications for disposable income, debt and wealth holdings, residential conditions and perceived social status. Long-running debates about the merits of classifying countries into ‘housing regimes’ (Kemeny, 2006) or clusters of institutional settings (Lersch & Dewilde, 2015) suggest that the national context shapes tenure preferences, as well as the housing opportunities and constraints that confront young people (Lennartz et al, 2016) This means that the influence of family dynamics and parental background on first-time homeownership probably varies across countries (Mulder et al, 2015). The full results of these checks are available from the first author
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