California Accepted Papers Paper:
Housing Value & Minority Homeowners’ Health Outcomes: A National-Level Examination of Home Value As a Predictor of Homeowner Health
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Previous research shows that homeownership is associated with better mental health
and physical well-being. However, due to discriminatory financing, which creates
barriers to improve housing conditions and purchase higher value homes, and zoning
laws that segregate minority homeowners in areas with environmental harms such as
industrial pollution, we hypothesized that these health benefits would not extend to
nonwhite homeowners. With this context in mind, we used primary residence property
value as a proxy for housing and environmental conditions to measure the association
between home value and homeowners’ health outcomes, varied by race. To examine
health inequities stemming from race-based housing discrepancies, we utilized
multivariate regression analysis to examine the moderating effect race plays on health
outcomes for homeowners at the national-level. Obtaining our data from the University
of Michigan’s longitudinal Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 12th wave, collected in
2014, with RAND’s HRS data products, our regression model incorporated 26
independent variables, with health outcomes measured by number of diagnosed health
conditions. Conforming to results from similar studies at the local-level, our national-
level analysis shows that homeowners’ health outcomes improve as home values
increase and that average health outcomes of Black homeowners were worse than
White homeowners. However, our results also indicate that Hispanic homeowners were
diagnosed with fewer health conditions than their White counterparts, and that Hispanic
and Black homeowners with the lower valued homes had better health outcomes
relative to White homeowners of highest valued homes. We believe that these
unexpected results are due to the Hispanic Health Paradox and other protective factors.
More broadly, our results suggest barriers exist for nonwhite people to become
homeowners: while community-based and individual-level characteristics may have
simultaneously helped some nonwhite respondents become homeowners and provided
protection against the development of diseases as these respondents aged, ongoing
housing discrimination has limited these homeowners to lower value homes compared
to their white counterparts. We hope this study will add to the body of fair housing
research exploring the effects of housing discrimination in the United States from a
public health perspective.
and physical well-being. However, due to discriminatory financing, which creates
barriers to improve housing conditions and purchase higher value homes, and zoning
laws that segregate minority homeowners in areas with environmental harms such as
industrial pollution, we hypothesized that these health benefits would not extend to
nonwhite homeowners. With this context in mind, we used primary residence property
value as a proxy for housing and environmental conditions to measure the association
between home value and homeowners’ health outcomes, varied by race. To examine
health inequities stemming from race-based housing discrepancies, we utilized
multivariate regression analysis to examine the moderating effect race plays on health
outcomes for homeowners at the national-level. Obtaining our data from the University
of Michigan’s longitudinal Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 12th wave, collected in
2014, with RAND’s HRS data products, our regression model incorporated 26
independent variables, with health outcomes measured by number of diagnosed health
conditions. Conforming to results from similar studies at the local-level, our national-
level analysis shows that homeowners’ health outcomes improve as home values
increase and that average health outcomes of Black homeowners were worse than
White homeowners. However, our results also indicate that Hispanic homeowners were
diagnosed with fewer health conditions than their White counterparts, and that Hispanic
and Black homeowners with the lower valued homes had better health outcomes
relative to White homeowners of highest valued homes. We believe that these
unexpected results are due to the Hispanic Health Paradox and other protective factors.
More broadly, our results suggest barriers exist for nonwhite people to become
homeowners: while community-based and individual-level characteristics may have
simultaneously helped some nonwhite respondents become homeowners and provided
protection against the development of diseases as these respondents aged, ongoing
housing discrimination has limited these homeowners to lower value homes compared
to their white counterparts. We hope this study will add to the body of fair housing
research exploring the effects of housing discrimination in the United States from a
public health perspective.
