Abstract:
This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model of discrete choice for labor supply, fertility and transition from tenant to home-owner,to investigate the secular decline in home ownership over the past several decades,wholly attributable to households postponing the purchase of their first home. House prices only partly explain the decline; higher base level wages led to lower fertility also contributing to the decline,because households with children are more likely to own a home than those without.Somewhat surprisingly we find higher levels of female education ameliorated this trend,highly educated women placing greater value on homeownership.