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The concept of home ownership has been under attack recently. Some have referred to it, among other things, as a failed American dream. When talking about the disappointment that some homeowners have faced, the focus is most often on the financial implications of home ownership. Critics suggest that we should rethink home ownership as a financial investment decision.
However, home ownership is not only a financial decision. There are many emotions involved in becoming a homeowner. Families like to plant flowers and vegetable gardens, to paint the walls in their homes, visit with their neighbors and rely on them to pet sit. Families make these places their homes and all of these are benefits homeowners enjoy without having to worry about decisions of their landlords. Knowing it is their home, homeowners are more likely to make improvements and keep up the grounds around the home. Home ownership also provides emotional identification with the neighborhood and the community.
But also, unlike many of the other investments, which are portable or intangible, a home is an asset that is tied to a fixed geographical location. Consequently, the value of the home is determined by the condition of the neighborhood in which it is located, and the social institutions that serve its residents. Therefore, homeowners have a stake in seeing their communities thrive. This is an argument made by Home Ownership and Volunteering: An Alternative Approach to Studying Social Inequality and Civic Engagement, a study recently published in The Sociological Forum. The research investigates whether people volunteer more if they have a stake in the community such as owning a home. For years, researchers have studied homeowners’ political behavior, and for the most part agree that homeowners are more politically and civically active in their communities.
In the new study, researchers argue that knowing that good schools improve property values, homeowners have a stronger incentive to volunteer or raise money to improve school quality than do renters; even if the homeowners have no children in school. Volunteering for public services, such as museums, public safety organizations, or recreation facilities, also improves neighborhood quality and keeps property taxes relatively lower.
Previous studies have looked at the relationship between home ownership, length of residence, and volunteer activity. One study, Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?, found that 24 percent of renters and 40 percent of the homeowners had worked with others to solve a community problem in a given year. While these results were not affected by age, race, gender, marital status, income, and education, the duration of residence did affect how much people volunteered. The residents with longer tenure volunteered more hours.
The new study, however, also incorporated the value the home into the equation, suggesting that owners of more expensive homes might have higher stakes in the neighborhood. The results did not, however, validate this assumption. Simply owning a home increases the number of hours volunteered, but owners of low-value homes do not volunteer any more or less than owners of high-value homes. Thus, while home ownership increases the number of hours volunteered, home value itself has no impact on volunteering. Another important finding suggests that home ownership 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.
In the end, data constraints make it difficult to examine other ways people help each other. Volunteer work, as defined in the survey data used, is free labor provided to an organization. It does not encompass, for example, running an elderly neighbor to the pharmacy to fill a prescription even if the work is performed on a regular basis .
Irrespective of the length of tenure or value of the house, homeowners spend more time volunteering because their motivations are not only economic but because home ownership encourages attachment with the neighborhood or community. It is a component of home ownership that makes buying a home more than just a financial investment decision.
The benefits of home ownership don’t just extend to homeowners’ communities: according to The Social Psychological Effects of Affordable Home Ownership homeowners tend to have more extensive social networks than do renters. And as a result, they have increased access to social capital. In an upcoming commentary titled: “The Connection between Home Ownership and Social Capital” we will discuss social networks and home ownership in more detail.
More on Home Ownership, Volunteering and Community Involvement
Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?
The Social Psychological Effects of Affordable Home Ownership
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