How Can Homeownership Benefit Your Children?

There are a lot of things that homeownership brings to communities. Homeownership provides social benefits beyond pure financial economic benefits.

Young people that grow up in a situation with homeownership, they’re in a different place than those people that are not. It's not saying that every renter’s kid is not going to go well in school, have a drug problem, and commit a crime. But the stability of owning a home and everything that brings, helps, gives kids an advantage. Why not give as many of those kids an advantage as you possibly can.

Homeowners are more likely to be involved in a community. Studies have shown this. Academic studies have shown this. Civic engagements, local elections, and volunteer work compared to renters, again, with other things being equal. That not only makes sense, we call it pride of ownership.

If you own a house in a neighborhood, you just care more about that house than if you’re going to be transient and rent, then rent the next neighborhood or the next city in two years from now. You get more involved because you’re putting roots down there.

This has been an argument for the last couple of years. People who own homes have an equity they can tap into, and perhaps when their children, their teenage children, decide that they’re going to go to college.

Well, people that are homeowners can help their kids out with that. They can look their kids in the eye and say, “Are you worth the investment? Is it worth me taking money out of the house to invest in you?” And so many parents see that yes, it is. And that’s what the study from Boston Federal Reserve shows. Homeowners’ children – the income of homeowners’ children rises as values rise. The more they’re able to invest in their kids, the better future their kids have.

Again, we don’t list and sell houses for a living. We change people’s lives for a living. We do it by listing and selling homes.