Age at first-time homeownership in Spain

Abstract

Owning a house is one of the important achievements in one?s life. It is often closely related to important lifecycle events such as emancipation, marriage and childbearing. It also has important implications regarding geographical mobility and labor market commitment. In this paper we examine the determinants of age at first home ownership for the Spanish population using the Spanish Socio-demographic Survey. Some interesting results are as follows. (1) Age at becoming a owner-occupier is closely related with age at marriage. More than 50% of the purchases of first house coincide with the time of marriage. (2) The hazard rate of homeownership among men is 3-4 times higher during an employed period than during an unemployed period, and within an employed period the rate is about twice higher if the job is a permanent one than if it is a temporary one. (3) An implication for the future is that given other things equal a better employment prospect along with an increasing number of two-earner couples will shorten the age at homeownership and thus increase the proportion of homeownership.