Homeownership and the Accumulation of Real Wealth

Abstract

The contention surrounding the significance of homeownership for social theory is reviewed, after which it is suggested that the conceptualisation of wealth accumulation for homeownership has yet to comprehend fully the ‘generative mechanisms' underlying capital gains or losses. There is a need to advance beyond the rather limited analysis developed by Thorns in 1981, to a consideration of the connections between urban restructuring, the transfer of value, and capital growth within the urban housing market. Trends in Adelaide's separate-housing market, 1968–75, are outlined to provide a context for the central question; that is, what is the relationship between class position and house price inflation? Too much temporal and spatial variability is encountered in a number of estimates of capital growth in the separate-house submarket to sustain the claim that this source of accumulation systematically favours those homeowners with the greatest real investment in housing. Regression analysis is used to demonstrate that at least some of the variability in capital gains or losses can be accounted for by indicators that relate to processes of urban restructuring. Further clarification of the theoretical significance of homeownership for social reconstitution must await a longitudinal study of the passage of households through the domestic property market in the course of a lifetime.