Homeownership determinants for Chinese Americans: assimilation, ethnic concentration, and nativity

Chinese homeownership rates in the Los Angeles CMSA adjusted by socioeconomic and housing market characteristics are on average 18 percentage points higher than those of native white households Painter et al. (2003). This finding runs contrary to most of immigration literature, which suggests that immigrants usually lag behind the host society in measures of economic well-being. This study focus on two additional factors, which most economic studies of homeownership choice ignore, that may play a role in helping Chinese households achieve high homeownership in ways that other immigrant group do not. The results of this analysis find that the high homeownership rates cannot be explained by the English skills of households. On the other hand, the cultural influence of home-owning peers may have partially contributed to the higher homeownership of Chinese households. While living in ethnic Chinese communities lowers homeownership rates, in general, it helps improve the likelihood that Chinese immigrants to own a home. Finally, we find that there is great diversity among Chinese subgroups with respect to their likelihood of owning a home, but very little diversity with respect to the education and income level of Chinese households.