Immigrant Trajectories into Homeownership: A Temporal Analysis of Residential Assimilation

Abstract

"This study explores the rate of advancement into homeownership of immigrants, relative to native borns, in Southern California, a principal region of immigrant settlement.... Recent immigrants as well as young native borns are newcomers to the housing market and have lower attainment levels than earlier arrivals or older cohorts. Cohort trajectories are tracked from 1980 to 1990, adjusting for the influence of income, education, English proficiency, and marital status. Asian immigrants achieved extraordinarily high levels of homeownership soon after arrival, whereas Hispanic immigrants demonstrated sustained advancement into homeownership from initially very low levels."

A summary period measure of immigrant advancement in the U.S.

“…While wages have been an important focus of research on the economic success of immigrants, pay is hardly the only indicator or measure of immigrants' advancement into the mainstream of American life. A large body of research has accumulated on immigrants' advances in other areas, including studies on the acquisition of English language skills by Stevens (1994), Espenshade and Fu (1997), and Hakimzadeh and Cohn (2007); on the use of English in the home by Alba and Nee (2003); on the acquisition and use of English and linguistic isolation by Portes and Rumbaut (1996); on voting by Ramakrishnan and Espenshade (2001); on political party identification by Wong (2000); on homeownership by Alba and Logan (1992) and Myers and Lee (1998); on locational attainment by Alba and Logan (1991) and White and Glick (2009); and on occupational status by Toussaint-Comeau (2006) and White and Glick (2009). All of these domains should be addressed in an overall assessment of immigrant advancement.…”

“…The practical effect of duration differences is that, because recent arrivals have not had as much time to advance as immigrants of longer residence, an increase in the number of recent arrivals 4 An illustration of this biased interpretation is the comparison of homeownership attainment by Asians and Latinos. The former attained high levels of homeownership shortly after arrival, with much less progress thereafter; while the latter exhibited substantial upward mobility that is sustained over three successive decades of lengthening residence (Myers and Lee 1998). 5 Several studies of immigrant cohort advancement have tapped available sources of true panel data (e.g., Duleep and Regets 1997 for wages, and Toussaint-Comeau 2006 for occupational status).…”

“…Examples of these studies are Ramakrishnan and Espenshade (2001) and Wong (2000) for political participation, Sorensen and Enchautegui (1994) for earnings, and Toussaint-Comeau (2006) for occupational status. For homeownership, the time elapsed since arrival in the U.S. has been found to be as important as the current age (Myers and Lee 1998). In addition, the labor and housing market conditions at the time of entry have been found to be important for shaping subsequent career attainments (Borjas 1985, Myers andLee 1998).…”

“…For homeownership, the time elapsed since arrival in the U.S. has been found to be as important as the current age (Myers and Lee 1998). In addition, the labor and housing market conditions at the time of entry have been found to be important for shaping subsequent career attainments (Borjas 1985, Myers andLee 1998).…”

Development similarity based on proximity: A case study of urban clusters in Canada

“…That is, ownership of a home, an expensive and durable commodity, is held to be an important indicator of population welfare (Clark et al 1997;Myers and Lee 1998). However, the reasons behind high homeownership rates can reside in low mortgage rates, lack of rental units, equity-based investment strategies, and societal preferences to own things, whereas a low percentage of homeowners may indicate that a town's dwellers are not committed to staying on as permanent residents (Portnov and Erell 2001).…”