Housing values of adult children and their parents. Is the quality of housing transmitted between generations?

This paper investigates to what extent the value of housing is transmitted from one generation to the next. Using the Social Statistical dataBase (SSB) for the Netherlands in 2003 and OLS regression analysis, it is found that the value of the parents’ home is an important predictor of housing value. Even after controlling for the fact that parents and children might operate in the same housing market, and parental characteristics such as income, age and household status, strong similarities are found between the value of the parents’ home and that of their adult children. Finally, it is concluded that parental housing value is a robust measure of the parents’ socioeconomic status because it reflects the parents’ complete socio-economic histories