Homeownership has long been heralded as better for children.
Kids raised in owned as opposed to rented homes show higher math
and reading scores and less tendency to drop out of high school.
In recent years, organizations from the National Association of
Realtors to the President's Council of Economic Advisers to
Habitat for Humanity have made sure to mention those sorts of
findings in efforts to push more people to own houses. But maybe
the argument is flawed. New research by David Barker of the
University of Iowa and Eric Miller of the Congressional Budget
Office indicates that homeownership actually has little to no
effect on how kids do in school. Their paper, "Homeownership and
Child Welfare," which appears in the summer issue of Real Estate
Economics, is drumming up interest in housing-policy circles for
calling into question one of the basic rationales for
encouraging people to own homes. It's yet another idea like
house prices always go up, and down payments aren't that
important being re-evaluated in