(Re)Development In New Jersey’s Suburbs: Homeownership, Local Development & The Perpetuation Of Inequality
PORTIA ALLEN-KYLE
May 2015
Homeownership is one of the most esteemed values in American society. As such, homeownership is heavily promoted and subsidized by both federal and local governments in the form of tax credits, tax deductions, federally subsidized loans, and federal mortgage insurance from the Federal Housing Authority. The rationale for these subsidies is that homeowners make better citizens, which has been substantiated by researchers using measures such as local voting and church attendance. Conceptualizing homeownership as a socially constructed American value, one can extract that Americans who do not own their own homes are not conforming to traditionally accepted values.
As a homeowner, one is somewhat able to control the fate of their neighborhood through maintenance, home improvements, and expansion. In other words, homeowners can (and often do) endeavor to maintain or improve their property value, in turn maintaining or improving the value and ‘desirability’ of the neighborhood. Higher homeownership rates have been found to strengthen communities by fostering higher levels of social trust in neighbors, which can also work to increase neighborhood desirability. Homeownership is strongly and significantly related to participation in local politics, both in terms of voting in municipal elections and knowledge of one’s state representative. Though this relationship holds true for all income levels, it is almost five times stronger for high-income homeowners than it is for their low-income counterparts.
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