Owning a home in the US linked to longer life

Dr Casey Breen, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Department of Sociology, conducted the study, published today in Demography.

The study found that homeownership was associated with 0.36 years of additional life expectancy for Black male Americans who were born in the early twentieth century, and 0.42 years for their White counterparts.

Dr Casey Breen said ‘My study finds homeownership has a meaningful positive impact on life expectancy. These results suggest that social policies that equitably expand homeownership opportunities for Black Americans may help narrow the gap between Black and White male life expectancy in the US.’

According to the study, expanding homeownership opportunities for racial minorities could help mitigate the profound racial disparities in mortality the US is currently experiencing. The study also highlights significant disparities in homeownership rates in the twentieth century, with White Americans being almost twice as likely to own a house than Black Americans. Due to systemic historical issues such as slavery and racism, Black Americans had far fewer opportunities to own their home in 1940 with fewer than 10% doing so between the ages of 18–25 in 1940, and only 40% over the age of 65 owning their homes.

Using data from the 1920 and 1940 census records that were linked to social security mortality records, and a sibling-based identification strategy, the study was able to analyse the different outcomes in life expectancy for American male adults owning a home between the ages of 24 and 35.

While owning a home as opposed to renting can help in the accumulation of wealth, and is associated with better health and living longer, the study found that the property’s value had very little impact on life expectancy. The study also discusses other reasons for this increase in life expectancy for homeowners including a stronger social community, the psychological benefits of homeownership, and better living conditions.

Dr Casey Breen said ‘This study also shows that there is a meaningful, statistically significant difference in life expectancy between Americans owning their home and those who rent, with homeowners in early adulthood living approximately six months longer at age 65 than those who rent.’

The study controlled for factors such as education attainment, race, income, marital status, and shared family background to provide a snapshot of how US homeownership affected life expectancy in the twentieth century. However, it is important to note that the sample was restricted in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality and historical context, and is unlikely to be representative of other populations.

Editor’s notes

The full paper, ‘The Longevity Benefits of Homeownership: Evidence from Early 20th-Century U.S. Male Birth Cohorts’, is under embargo until 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday 4 December 2024 and will be published in Demography at https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11680975 and available at https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/advance-publication

For more information, interviews and a copy of the paper under embargo, please contact the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science’s Media and Communications Officer Bradley Hall-Smith (LCDS.Media@demography.ox.ac.uk) and the study author Dr Casey Breen (casey.breen@demography.ox.ac.uk)

About the University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science

Based at Oxford Population Health, the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Demographic Science Unit are at the forefront of demographic research, disrupting and realigning demography for the benefit of populations around the world. Focussing on inequality, family, biosocial, digital, geospatial, and computational research, our researchers use new types of data, methods and unconventional approaches to tackle the most challenging demographic and population problems of our time.

About the University of Oxford’s Department of Sociology

Oxford Sociology is at the forefront of ground-breaking empirical research which spans the full spectrum of the social world. We apply a diverse range of rigorous methods to real-world issues in order to address the most pressing societal challenges of our times. Our commitment to collaborative research ensures that our researchers have the freedom to transcend disciplinary boundaries, foster international partnerships, and explore innovative research. Our research themes include demography, life course research, political sociology and social movements, social inequality, gender and the family, cybercrime and justice, international comparative research, and computational social science.