Publication Date
September 2011Author(s)
Kim R. Manturuk, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Pajarita Charles, Shenyang GuoMarried couples buy homes at higher rates and buy them more quickly than do their unmarried counterparts.
This research examines whether married low-income renters are more likely to become home owners than comparable single, low-income renters. To do so, it employs data from the Community Advantage Panel Study and discrete-time survival analysis with propensity-score matching.
Results suggest that married couples buy homes at higher rates, and buy them more quickly, than do their unmarried counterparts. Estimates in models that use propensity-score matching are robust to the control of selection bias between the married and the unmarried groups. The findings suggest that efforts to encourage marriage among low-income couples may be associated with subsequent economic mobility through home ownership.