Shared-equity homeownership programs help low- and moderate-income people afford buying a home, but they come with a catch. In exchange for help with your loan or a discount on your purchase, you need to pay back the government when you sell. That leaves them with less money to buy their next home, so many who participate in shared-equity programs end up stuck in place or back on the rental market. As William Cheung and Kelvin Wong put it, these programs provide great “entry affordability,” but participants struggle with “exit affordability” when they want to move out of subsidized housing and buy on the private market. We discuss their research into shared-equity ownership programs in six different countries, including the U.S., and how reforms might help more homebuyers or improve household mobility — but probably not both.

Show notes:

• Cheung, K. S., & Wong, S. K. (2019). Entry and exit affordability of shared equity homeownership: an international comparison. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.
• Read here about the San Francisco Downpayment Assistance Loan Program (which is now discontinued).
• Cheung, K. S., Wong, S. K., Chau, K. W., & Yiu, C. Y. (2021). The Misallocation Problem of Subsidized Housing: A Lesson from Hong Kong. Sustainability, 13(4), 1855.