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Staff Working Papers
Working Paper 24-02: Measuring Homeownership Sustainability for First-Time Homebuyers

Published: 03/13/2024

Author:

​​​Kevin A. Park (Fannie Mae); Liyi Liu (Freddie Mac); Robert Avery (FHFA);​ Lawrence Costa (FHFA)

​​Ab​stract:

Homeownership is often expressed as a simple static number. Most reports or studies are unable to track a homeowner over time and they cannot follow a person after a home is sold to see what happens next. We craft new and dynamic statistics based on first-time homebuyers (FTHBs) using a nationally representative panel. FTHBs tend to remain homeowners through time. Additionally, we follow them through the mortgage market to describe their experiences with subsequent mortgages, including other purchase mortgages and refinances. We provide statistics about three measures of homeownership “sustainability”: current homeownership, time until first exit from homeownership, and cumulative time since first purchase that individuals have remained owners. Across all three measures, we see that most homebuyers remain homeowners and the persistence has increased over time across all homeowner demographics like race or ethnicity, regions of the country, and mortgage lending submarkets.​​

Attachments:
Working Paper 24-02: Measuring Homeownership Sustainability for First-Time Homebuyers