Households supply about three-quarters of US rental housing. The paper examines the real estate investment decision and the proportion of wealth invested in real estate. Hypotheses drawn primarily from the real estate finance literature about the role of wealth, expected inflation, human capital, income tax rates, race, health, risk aversion and inheritance are tested against data from the Health and Retirement Study. Wealth has a powerful non-linear effect on ownership of real estate, but ownership is negatively associated with human capital. Marginal tax rates, race and property gifts affect real estate investment; poor health, risk aversion and expected inflation do not seem to.
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