The Growth of Home Ownership: 1940–1980

Abstract

Housing went through a major transition between 1940 and 1980 as the proportion of home owners nearly doubled. This article examines how that change took place. Compositional changes in the population and process changes led by post–World War II housing policies and programs are tested as explanations for the growth of home ownership. A process analysis and a decomposition of the change in home ownership between cohorts are used to evaluate each interpretation of change. A combination of both explanations accounts for the change in home ownership.