Homeownership and household formation: no homeownership, no marriage?

This study examines the homeownership effect on the likelihood of marriage. Benefits brought by homeownership are highlighted in existing research. Specifically, owning a house may increase one’s attractiveness in the marriage market. Therefore, homeowners more likely get married than renters. We test this hypothesis by comparing the marriage rate between homeowners and renters in China, where house is often regarded as a prerequisite for marriage. We use the data from the China Family Panel Studies survey. After controlling for observables, homeownership increases the likelihood of marriage by approximately 6.8 percentage points, corresponding to an increase of 66.02% of the marriage rate relative to the average. Our results are robust after controlling for the sample selection bias, omitted personality characteristics, unobserved heterogeneity, accompaniment of homeownership to marriage, and model misspecification.