Does home ownership by parents have an economic impact on their children?

This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore the impact of housing on children's productivity through educational attainment and through their housing choices as adults after they leave their parent's home. After controlling for other factors that are normally hypothesized to affect an individual's education and earnings, we find that the average child of homeowners is significantly more likely to achieve a higher level of education and, thereby, a higher level of earnings. We also find that having controlled for the factors traditionally thought to influence an individual's choice of housing tenure, as well as other parental characteristics, the housing tenure of parents plays a primary role in determining whether or not the child becomes a homeowner, (C) 1999 Academic Press.