The Great Recession called into question many assumptions about homeownership and its benefits. Among these are the factors that influence individual decisions about whether to own or rent, and the role of home improvements in generating wealth for homeowners. The papers on this panel address these issues in light of recent events, to investigate whether decisions about homeownership and home improvement spending have substantially changed in the last decade, or if the recession and foreclosure crisis had little effect on the perceptions and outcomes associated with owned housing. Two papers on this panel consider the larger question of how social preferences for homeownership have changed in recent years. Drew uses data from the 2011 Fannie Mae National Housing Survey to assess whether socially constructed beliefs in the benefits of owning are relevant to renters’ intentions to buy homes in the future. Her quantitative analysis finds that not only are such beliefs primary determinants of housing tenure expectations, surpassing even most socio-demographic and economic characteristics of respondents, but that financial circumstances and self-reported constraints on home purchasing are not relevant to intentions to buy homes. Rohe, Lindblad, and Han also consider attitudes towards homeownership post-recession, using a longitudinal analysis of low-income renters that, unlike Drew’s analysis, finds declines in both demand for owned homes and purchases among renters, particularly in areas of falling house prices and rising unemployment. The other two papers on this panel address the more specific question of how homeowners make decisions about home improvement spending and its impact on house values. Anaker and Li examine the home improvement activity of homeowners as a function of self-reported home values by American Housing Survey respondents in 2001, 2005, 2007, and 2011, to see if such decisions have changed with the boom and bust of the housing market over the decade of their analysis. Preliminary results suggest home values are significant predictors of home improvement spending and estimated returns on this investment in home value. Riley and Goulas, meanwhile, use data from the Community Advantage Program to predict home maintenance and improvement activity among a sample of low-income homeowners between 2003 and 2012, finding positive effects from such activity on house values, though negative returns on the amount of home investment spending. These studies suggest that the assumptions about home improvements adding to housing wealth are likely qualified and not the assured outcomes that the first two papers suggest motivate decisions to buy homes in the first place. These four papers offer important insights for future housing policies. Specifically, they suggest that the assumptions underlying existing policies that promote and facilitate homeownership should be revisited following the Recession, and policies changed to reflect these findings about the decisions households make with respect to their tenure and home improvements.