Family Dynamics and First-Time Homeownership

Annika Smits, University of Amsterdam

In this paper, we address the transition to first-time homeownership. We use the occurrence of household events such as cohabitation, marriage and getting children, as well as homeownership of the parents as the main explanatory factors. Using the first wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study and event history analysis techniques including interaction effects with calendar year, we investigate how the effects of household events and the intergenerational transmission of homeownership have changed during the past few decades. The preliminary results show that singles and cohabiters have become more likely to make the transition to homeownership, whereas intergenerational transmission and the differences between married couples with children and cohabiting couples with children have not changed markedly.