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The past century and a quarter can be divided into three successive eras for homeownership policy characterization. For the first four decades, the federal government pursued a laissez-faire policy that left housing issues to the individual states and private markets. For the next six decades, the federal government implemented a policy created as part of the Roosevelt New Deal program. Finally, the Clinton administration discarded the New Deal policy in favor of a more aggressive policy that has continued to the present day. The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of the respective policies.

The study introduces two metrics. The first metric, based on government homeownership rate data, enables comparison of the laissez-faire and New Deal policies. The second metric, based on financial frictions in the mortgage market, enables comparison of the New Deal and Clinton policies.

Analysis based on the first metric suggests the New Deal policy was successful in meeting its macroeconomic objectives and was more effective overall than the laissez-faire policy. Analysis based on the second metric suggests the New Deal policy was also more successful in both respects than the Clinton policy.

The findings suggest that the Clinton homeownership policy was the primary driver behind the recent US housing crisis and that vulnerability in the secondary mortgage market created by the Clinton policy represents systemic housing market risk.

The study introduces simple analytical tools to address problems related to systemic risk in the US housing and housing finance markets due to homeownership policy.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive assessment of the influential factors that must be considered in an effort to enhance homeownership.

A list of 14 factors identified through the literature were assessed through a questionnaire survey with 502 useful responses. The data collected were analysed using mean item score (MIS), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM).

MIS analysis revealed “prioritizing lending towards first-time buyers”, “reforming planning process to allow building of more homes” and “introducing subsidies for all first-time buyers” as the most influential factors affecting homeownership. Using EFA, 3 key factors were generated from the 14 factors: subsidies and policy reforms; fiscal measures; and monetary measures. The SEM results show that all three factors have a significant positive effect on homeownership at different levels.

This paper empirically examines the enabling factors for homeownership in Hong Kong, revealing a clear effect of various group factors on homeownership. The paper proposes practical and policy recommendations to improve homeownership rate.

Affordable homeownership is a policy that is often accorded a great deal of policy attention by governments of many countries. This paper aims to examine the market implications of setting a housing price to income ratio target for a market segment by the government.

The policy requires active intervention by the government with regard to the targeted sector. The paper uses a simple model of the housing market with a homeownership affordability target to derive the market implications of such targets.

In the presence of uncertainty and resource constraints, the objective of homeownership affordability is achieved for the targeted group at the expense of greater volatility in residential construction activity. When the size of the targeted sector is significant in size, there are spillover price and crowding out effects on the non‐targeted housing market segment.

This results in political pressure on the government to expand homeownership affordability targets to increasing segments of the population. Housing price to income ratios tend to be fairly constant over time and across targeted groups, the housing supply is relatively price inelastic and the income elasticity of housing demand is less than one.

The Singapore government intervenes extensively in the housing sector to ensure homeownership affordability, with a resulting homeownership rate of 91 percent for the resident population. The above hypotheses regarding the implications of setting housing price to income ratio targets are tested using the Singapore housing market.

This paper adds to the literature by analyzing the market implications of setting homeownership affordability targets in the context of a targeted housing segment.

The American Dream and homeownership are sometimes thought of as one and the same. A belief that homeownership is vital to the fabric of a vibrant society has led to government policies that encourage homeownership. This suggests that homeownership and societal well‐being are positively related. However, empirical analysis does not support this positive relationship either within the USA or across countries. This has important policy implications given the research in this special issue that discusses the macro and micro economic consequences of government programs that promote homeownership. Moving forward, we must consider both the private and public benefits of homeownership and also realize that the very concept of what a house is will likely change. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The analysis examines the relation between the incidence of homeownership and the well‐being (happiness) of a community. The analysis is first performed across the 50 states and then is done on a cross‐section of 26 countries.

The correlation coefficient between home ownership rates and well‐being are negative for both the US and international data. The evidence does not support the belief that homeownership is either necessary or sufficient for societal well‐being.

The paper presents some of the first empirical analysis to examine the relationship between homeownership and societal well‐being. Other studies in this special issue document both public and price costs to owning a home. Taken together, the special issue has important implications for government policies that encourage homeownership.

This paper attempts to fill two gaps in the homeownership literature identified by Dietz and Haurin: homeownership in less developed countries and the effects of race, ethnicity and income on tenure choice.

United Nations data from 1993 and 1998 are used to offer a cross‐country analysis of the determinants of homeownership rates. Consistent with the previous literature, this study confirms that the price‐to‐rent ratio is an important factor in tenure choice and increases in income are associated with increases in the percentage of consumers who choose to own. However, these relationships seem to hold generally only for higher income developed countries.

In contrast to the previous literature that finds race and ethnicity account for a significant portion of the differences in US homeownership rates, this study finds no evidence that these determinants account for differences across countries. The authors investigate the rule of law and find it is closely correlated with income measures which may indicate that countries with stronger laws encourage higher homeownership rates. Finally, capitalist/(formerly) communist regime differences do not appear to explain cross country differences in homeownership rates.

This research is limited by the scope and quality of the UN data.

The paper offers insights from the international evidence for the potential of selected policies to increase domestic homeownership rates and identifies several avenues for future international homeownership research.

This paper provides an initial empirical analysis on international homeownership in an attempt to fill gaps in the homeownership literature.

The purpose of this paper is to reconcile research finding that labor market outcomes are related to economic freedom for entrepreneurs and separate research finding that higher homeownership rates are associated with more unemployment.

Using panel data covering the 50 states over 1981-2009, this paper analyzes the relationship between labor market conditions, economic freedom, and homeownership rates.

The results indicate that economic freedom is associated with favorable labor market conditions but that the relationship between homeownership and poor labor market outcomes is small and insignificant in most specifications once economic freedom is accounted for.

This paper is the first paper to examine the relationship between labor market outcomes and both homeownership and economic freedom. The results suggest that the economic environment for entrepreneurs is more important than any rigidities created by homeownership.

The COVID-19 impact across major sectors did not exempt the low-cost housing (LCH) sub-sector. This may have increased the existing LCH demand-supply gap, especially in developing countries such as Malaysia. Studies showed that government policy (GP) aids in mitigating COVID-19 impact on goods and services, including housing-related issues. However, there is an academic literature scarcity regarding GP on LCH demand-supply gap during the COVID-19 crisis in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of GP on the relationship between LCH demand-supply gap and COVID-19 impact in Malaysia.

The research utilised a quantitative method in collating the data from four major cities in Malaysia. SmartPLS was utilised to analyse the usable 305 questionnaires retrieved from respondents. Structuralist Theory supported the developed framework.

Findings show that GP moderates the relationships between the LCH demand-supply gap and COVID-19 impact on Malaysia's low-income groups' (LIGs) homeownership delivery. It implies that the study's findings provide more understanding of issues influencing LCH demand-supply gap in the COVID-19 era via applying GP to mitigate the gap and improve homeownership for the disadvantaged.

The study intends to stir policymakers toward formulating policies and programmes that will mitigate LCH demand-supply gap during the present and future pandemics.

Besides the theoretical value of the developed model, policymakers can use the study's recommendations to mitigate future LCH demand-supply gaps during pandemics in developing countries using Malaysia as a case study.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors that determine the demand for single family houses in Alabama urbanized areas, commonly referred to as metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).

This paper builds and estimates a housing demand model that incorporates both macroeconomic and housing‐related variables using a panel time series data for 1988‐2007. The study is different from past research, which mainly focuses on housing demand at the state or national level, by looking at the factors influencing demand for housing at the MSAs level.

The study finds that demand for new single family houses in Alabama MSAs is influenced by both national economic factors and local factors. Population growth and increased sale of existing houses increase demand for new single family houses in the MSAs. On the contrary, increased cost of building a new house, higher real mortgage interest rates and unemployment rates are found to reduce the demand for new houses.

This study is one of the few studies that focus on housing demand at the local level, particularly in the US housing market. Since demand for housing will always be local and therefore influenced mostly by local conditions, the result reveal unique dynamics that are specific to the MSAs.

Based on a case study of the pre-2020 Olympics renewal project in the city-center of Tokyo, this chapter examines the nature and impacts of urban renewal conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) in relation to social housing.

A qualitative case study approach is used based on interviews (with different stakeholders), and participant observation (at various local events or public assemblies) to analyze the impact of such urban renewal on social housing and its community.

The TMG has promoted urban renewal of city government-owned land in public-private partnerships by defending these projects as “win-win-win strategy among residents-business-city.” However, at the same time it has worsened the housing conditions of residents by causing their displacement or the deterioration of their housing environment.

The chapter shows us that the TMG’s justification for the urban renewal — would produce trickle-down effects and help the residents — doesn’t reflect what is really happening to the community. This will help us to have a better understanding of the reality and to critically discuss a more just urban and housing policy.

The chapter provides a complex insight on the “super-residualization” of social housing in Japan, characterized not only by the decrease in its number but also urban renewal providing business services and amenities for the middle and upper classes. This provides an interesting comparison with Western societies.

Studies showed that policy influences housing provision. The review of these policies in the Southeast Asia's is possibly not yet adequate because of recent gap in housing demand-supply across the region. This review evaluates the state policy in low-cost housing (LCH) provision in Southeast Asian developing countries reported in published studies.

An electronic search (ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) was conducted using the following search terms: “Low-Cost Housing policy in Southeast Asia.” Reference list of identified studies was scanned to identify more studies. Studies published between 1991 and 2020 that focused either on the region or country within the region were selected. An independent reviewer extracted data from the studies using a standardised form and 27 studies were included in this review.

LCH developing countries experience, encumbrances and measures to mitigate LCH demand-supply gap in Southeast Asia were the issues addressed from the reviewed. Findings from the studies indicate that the level of lax state policy and enforcement of LCH varies across nations.

Findings and recommendations of this paper were based on systematically reviewed literature but does not compromise the robustness regarding state policy in low-cost housing provision in Southeast Asian developing countries. Thus, exploratory sequential mixed methods approach has been recommended as part of the implications for future research.

As part of the practical implications, this paper highlights the mechanism behind the success of Singapore LCH policy and transferability of the model to the developing countries within and outside the region, and open up the possibility to adopt these policies.

This study is probably the first systematic review on low-cost housing in Southeast Asia.