than renters.
Homeowners participate in elections much more frequently than renters. A study
by Glaeser and DiPasquale found that 77 percent of homeowners said they had at some point
voted in local elections compared with 52 percent of renters.
The study also found a greater
awareness of the political process among homeowners. About 38 percent of homeowners knew
the name of their local school board representative, compared with only 20 percent of renters.
The authors also found a higher incidence of membership in voluntary organizations and church
attendance among homeowners.
As before, it is not clear if homeownership in itself determines more civic participation or if the
correlated variable of residential stability is more responsible for higher civic participation. One
study that directly attempted to disentangle the two impacts found length of residence to be more
important than homeownership. Therefore, according to this study a renter household in a stable
neighborhood is more likely to be engaged in a community and civic activity than a homeowner
who frequently moves. There also is some evidence that homeownership programs may result in
increased property values near subsidized or locally assisted homeownership sites and can, under
the right circumstances, draw other non-housing investment to the community.
Two most recent studies examined civic engagement and social capital of homeowners. A study
looking at civic engagement investigated whether people volunteer more if they have a stake in
the community such as owning a home. The authors argued that homeowners have a stake in the
community given that home is a unique investment where the asset is tied to a fixed geographical
location and consequently the value of the property is determined by the condition of the
neighborhood in which it is located and the social institutions that serve its residents. The study
found that simply owning a home increases the number of hours volunteered, but low-value
homeowners do not volunteer any more or less than high-value homeowners. Thus, while
homeownership increases the number of hours volunteered, home value itself has no impact on
volunteering. Another important finding suggests that homeownership yields a positive influence
on volunteering regardless of how long the homeowner has lived in the neighborhood. This
result challenges previous studies which implied length of tenure was critical. The study focusing
on social capital discusses the importance of social networks and given the greater social
network of homeowners, homeowners’ resultant access to social capital
. Social capital refers to
social resources a person can access through contacts with others in his or her social networks.
To differentiate between an individual’s overall social capital and the social capital connected
with his or her neighborhood, authors asked whether any of the people a respondent knows who
could provide a given resource reside in his or her neighborhood. If homeownership creates
social capital, homeowners are expected to have more overall social capital resources and also
more resources within their neighborhoods. If homeownership only influences the geographical
distribution of social capital, homeowners are expected to know more people in their
Cox, K., 1982. “Housing Tenure and Neighborhood Activism,” Urban Affairs Quarterly 18, pp. 107-29.
DiPasquale, D. and E. Glaeser, 1998, “Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?”, Journal
of Urban Economics 45, 354-384.
Ellen, Ingrid Gould, Scott Susin, Amy Ellen Schwartz, and Michael Schill 2001. Do Homeownership Programs
Increase Property Value in Low Income Neighborhoods? Low-Income Homeownership Working Paper Series
LIHO-01.13, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
Manturuk, K, M. Lindblad, and M Quercia. 2010. Friends and Neighbors: Homeownership and Social Capital Among
Low- to Moderate-Income Families. Journal of Urban Affairs 32.