The rise of young, single home ownership amid declining marriage rates in the 1970s-1990s

Economist Minsu Chang looked at how the rates of US home ownership changed over time for young single people and young married couples, from 1970 to the mid-1990s. Studying this time period allowed her to examine the evolution of home ownership while minimizing the influence of the housing price boom that started in the late 1990s. Essential for building her analytical model was data from ICPSR, namely the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), 1970, which contains detailed information on both housing and non-housing assets of US households. She combined it with home ownership and demographic data from the 1970 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Similarly, she combined data from SCF 1995 and PSID 1994. She found that between 1970 and 1995, the home ownership rate among young single people increased by an average of 4.6 percent, but the home ownership rate among young couples decreased by -1.7 percent. Chang showed that changes in marital prospects (lower marriage rates, higher divorce rates) and higher returns on non-housing assets explain the increase in home ownership among young single households. On the other hand, increased divorce risks, along with higher labor market volatility and house prices, contributed to the decline in home ownership among young married couples. Younger adults in their 20s and 30s were the most affected, as changes in marriage and divorce patterns were more pronounced for their age group compared to 1970.