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In Debt but Still Happy? Homeownership and the Satisfactions with Housing and Life

Sebastian Will & Timon Renz

Journal of Housing Research2024https://doi.org/10.1080/10527001.2024.2367279article
ABDC B
Weight
0.66

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between homeownership and life as well as housing satisfaction. Following several studies, we confirm the positive relationship between housing satisfaction and homeownership using panel data from Germany. Contrary to most of the literature, we find no positive significant effects of a home purchase on life satisfaction in the long-term. Analyzing short-term effects in an event-study design, we show that both life and housing satisfaction anticipate the acquisition and adapt shortly after. Debt-free buyers, however, do not experience anticipation or adaptation effects at all. Comparing outright homebuyers to debt-financing owners, we show that having a real estate loan affects homeowners’ life satisfaction negatively. The larger the mortgage burden relative to the household income and the last rent paid, the larger is the negative effect on life satisfaction. We conclude that the mortgage burden of a home purchase can offset the positive effect of homeownership.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/10527001.2024.2367279

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@article{sebastian2024,
  title        = {{In Debt but Still Happy? Homeownership and the Satisfactions with Housing and Life}},
  author       = {Sebastian Will & Timon Renz},
  journal      = {Journal of Housing Research},
  year         = {2024},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/10527001.2024.2367279},
}

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Evidence weight

0.66

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.86 × 0.4 = 0.34
M · momentum0.65 × 0.15 = 0.10
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.