Housing Wealth Accumulation and Electoral Representation

Authors:

Carlos F. Avenancio-León, University of California San Diego
Yutao He, University of California San Diego
Michael Reher, University of California San Diego

Abstract:

We document that housing wealth accumulation systematically differs among homeowners by their political participation. Using a nationwide voter-property dataset, we find that realized housing appreciation increases monotonically the more a homeowner participates in elections. This gradient is robust to rich controls for geography, partisanship, demographics, wealth proxies, and income. An original survey replicates these findings and suggests that personality traits can partly explain the gradient. Additional evidence suggests that the politically engaged actively generate value by buying cheap homes, spending on improvements, and selling at a premium. Overall, politically engaged homeowners are over-represented in both electoral participation and aggregate housing wealth.