Housing tenure, wages, and market outcomes

This paper delves into the relationship between homeownership and wage, a topic that has received less attention when compared to the impact of homeownership on (un)employment (Yang, 2019). As in Coulson and Fisher (2009), this paper can distinguish between micro-level and aggregate-level results, namely, easier access to homeownership reduces reservation wages but improves labour market outcomes. However, when the distinction between outright homeowners and homeowners with a mortgage is considered, the paper supports a recent empirical finding by Brunet et al. (2025) that outright homeownership harms job search and increases reservation wage. This paper also aims to tie this strand of literature with studies on job stability and homeownership (Coulson et al., 2022). Finally, the proposed model can explain some housing markets facts.