Housing Tenure and Neighborhood Activism

Abstract

In the literature on neighborhood activism, common hypotheses are that home ownership is a major explanatory variable, and that this is due to a concern for the home as an investment. The first hypothesis is validated but the second is not. Rather, the greater activism of homeowners when confronted by problems in the neighborhood stems in all likelihood from transaction cost barriers to relocation. Concern for the home as an investment, on the other hand, has little to do with the emergence of neighborhood problems and seems to be mainly a function of length of residence.