ABSTRACT
Home ownership in the United States has been used as a vehicle to promote diverse political, economic, and social goals and has been a focus of a wide variety of public policy initiatives. The goals of these policies have included, more or less explicitly and with varying emphasis over time, giving people a stake in society by enhancing financial and personal well-being; promoting confidence in the government; stabilizing and stimulating the economy; quelling social unrest and racial tensions; providing opportunities to non-white and low-income households to participate in the “American Dream”; stabilizing and rejuvenating deteriorated neighborhoods; and promoting wealth accumulation as a way to reduce economic inequality. Although these goals have been apparent in policy interventions, the evidence demonstrating that housing tenure status is responsible for attaining these diverse outcomes is somewhat equivocal.
