logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Does Home Ownership Lead to Civic Virtue? Maybe Not

Pam Bailey
August 24, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
“Homeownership” by Mark Moz.

 August 21, 2018; New York Times

In her column for the New York Times’ “The Upshot,” Emily Badger focuses on the not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) mindset that has so bedeviled the movement to develop more affordable housing. But buried within her analysis is a provocative observation about the long-festering debate about homeowners versus renters as responsible citizens. She writes:

The crucial divide in the politics of housing development isn’t between left and right, but between people who own homes and those who don’t.…Generations of American politicians have argued that homeowners make good citizens—and in the early days of the nation, only property owners could vote. It seems reasonable that a financial stake in the community would make people more likely to care for it. But research suggests that homeownership can also prompt people to oppose what’s good for their communities in a larger sense [in this case, more affordable housing].

The researchers she quotes conclude that homeowners, no matter what their political affiliation, want to limit or prohibit development of housing for lower-income residents in their vicinity and are more likely than renters to act on their misgivings.

Among the studies she cites is research conducted by Andrew Hall and Jesse Yoder at Stanford, which compared voter data with housing deeds for 18 million people in Ohio and North Carolina. They found that buying a home increases participation in local elections, particularly when zoning questions are on the ballot. The more expensive the home, the more likely the residents are to vote.

“It’s not that you become more selfish, but you become more likely to translate selfishness into political action,” Hall suggests.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Homeownership long has been incentivized in the United States through highly favorable tax laws, including deductions for mortgage interest. In 2015, the federal government spent $71 billion on the mortgage-interest deduction, with households earning more than $100,000 receiving almost 90 percent of the benefits. The new tax bill Republicans passed last year reduced that benefit, but what is left is even more skewed toward the wealthy. In the next tax season, about 24 percent of the deduction’s benefits are expected to go to households earning more than $500,000, up from about 12.4 percent this year. Meanwhile, half of all poor American families who rent spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs. In May, rental income as a share of GDP hit an all-time high. Yet, to date, the tax code does not offer renters any relief.

“It is difficult to think of another social policy that more successfully multiplies America’s inequality in such a sweeping fashion,” wrote Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, in the New York Times.

Today, homeownership has become synonymous with the “American Dream,” with survey after survey showing residents believe this is what they need to be considered successful. Indeed, homeownership is often perceived as the only good option to achieve a secure future. We are even told that homeowners are more upstanding citizens. Yet the Joint Center for Housing Studies found several years ago that apartment residents—who represent the highest-density renters—are almost twice as likely to socialize with their neighbors as homeowners, and are just as likely to belong to structured social groups and to closely identify with the town or city in which they live. (The one area in which apartment residents significantly lagged behind homeowners was voting in local elections, as noted above.) Other studies suggesting that homeownership is associated with a lower crime rate and improved educational achievements have not controlled for confounding factors such as chronic unemployment.

As for property values, a presenter at a Harvard Revisiting Rental Housing summit agreed, saying, “The fear that housing density will hurt property values seems to be primarily based on anecdotes. By contrast, most research has come to a different conclusion: In general, neither multifamily rental housing, nor low-income housing, causes neighboring property values to decline.”

In light of such data, is there any chance that homeownership will lose its privileged status? Or that renters will get more of a break? There is some hope on the horizon. Sen. Cory Booker’s HOME act includes a tax credit for renters earning 80 percent of the area median income and who spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, including utilities. Eligible renters can receive the difference between their rental payment—capped at 100 percent of fair-market rent—and 30 percent of their monthly adjusted gross income. Booker’s proposal also includes an option for renters to defer 20 percent of their tax credit to a “rainy day savings program.” A second bill, from Sen. Kamala Harris, offers a credit to all taxpayers earning less than $100,000 annually (except in high-rent areas, like San Francisco, where the income restriction is $125,000).

However, a value system laid down so carefully more than 70 years ago will take a long time to chip away.—Pam Bailey

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pam Bailey

Pam Bailey is a senior writer for a national community development nonprofit. She also founded and runs a youth storytelling project for Palestinian refugees, WeAreNotNumbers.org. Pam writes for a number of news outlets, including Middle East Eye, Truthout and Al-Jazeera, building on her experience living and reporting from the Middle East during the so-called Arab Spring. She previously worked as a senior communicator in the corporate world, including Johnson & Johnson.

More about: civic engagementNonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Winter_2022Subscribe Today
You might also like
Widening Our Lens, Seeing the Full Opportunity to Win
Kalia Abiade
Universities after Neoliberalism: How to Build a Democratic Civic University
Ira Harkavy and Rita A. Hodges
Raising Consciousness on Civic Engagement: The Engaged Cities Award
Derrick Rhayn
Philanthropy, Democracy, and the Weird Civic Playground of Nonprofit Museums
Chelsea Reichert
Philanthropy Seeds University Center to Help Community Address Poverty
Sean Watterson and Steve Dubb
Chicago Nonprofits Merge to Boost Civic Engagement
Danielle Holly

Upcoming Webinars

Remaking the Economy

Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories

Register Now
You might also like
Widening Our Lens, Seeing the Full Opportunity to Win
Kalia Abiade
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Universities after Neoliberalism: How to Build a Democratic...
Ira Harkavy and Rita A. Hodges

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.