Chapter 6 Parental marital dissolution and the intergenerational transmission of homeownership

Children of homeowners are more likely to enter homeownership
than are children whose parents rent. We investigate whether this
association is dependent on parental divorce, focusing on parental
assistance as a conduit of intergenerational transmission. Event history
analyses of data for England and Wales from the British Household
Panel Survey (BHPS) show that the intergenerational transmission of
homeownership is stronger for children of divorced parents compared
with children of married parents. Such an eff ect may arise from two
channels: (1) children of divorced parents are more in need of parental
assistance due to socio-economic disadvantages associated with
parental divorce; and (2) compared with married parents, divorced
homeowning parents (mothers) rely more on housing wealth, rather
than fi nancial wealth, for assisting children. Findings support both
explanations. Children of divorced parents are furthermore less likely
to co-reside. We fi nd limited evidence that when they do, co-residence
is less conductive to homeownership compared with children from
married parents.