A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research looks into what role this housing wealth — a household's overall finances — played in homeowners' decision-making when it comes to sending their children to college.
The study -- "The Effect of Housing Wealth on College Choice: Evidence From the Housing Boom" and co-authored by Professors Michael Lovenheim and C. Lockwood Reynolds -- found homeowners that experienced a windfall from the housing boom were more likely to send their children to college, to send them to four-year public institutions instead of two-year institutions and to send them to state "flagship" institutions — which are better resourced, have higher faculty-student ratios and SAT scores and are also more expensive to attend -- rather than nonflagship public institutions.
More specifically, the study found that a $10,000 increase in a family's housing wealth in the four years leading up to a student becoming college-age increases the likelihood he or she attends a flagship public university by 1.8%. It also lowers the probability that a student will attend a community college by 1.6%. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/housing-wealth-impacts-where-college-study-says-142023436.html ___________________________________________________________________ The key element to this article are the numbers and seeing the true effect on what housing has done to the college parents since 2007.
You can see in the future, if things do not change in NOV 2012, high school students will be effected as the economic pain starts to trickle down further, to hit what the US might consider core values.
Our society has long felt education is a key to living a better life. But when the rug is shifted and you can no longer afford to assist your children in at least getting their higher education started, a better life starts to seem like an eternity to the next generation.
Michael Lebb
