Achieving the American Dream, Homeownership Wealth, and Voluntary Military Service: A Snapshot of Homeowners Who Transitioned to Adulthood During the First Gulf War

Since adopting the all-volunteer force in 1973, many young adults in the United States have viewed military service as a pathway to meet future life goals such as homeownership. I use a nationally representative survey, the American Community Survey (ACS), to examine a sample of homeowners who transitioned to adulthood during the first Gulf War and achieved their goal of paying off their mortgage and owning a single-family home. The data suggest an estimated one million of these homeowners (born between 1968 and 1973), including 30 thousand veterans. Even with their achievement, veteran homeownership is associated with lower home values than similar peers without military service. After controlling for demographic and housing characteristics, the comparisons show that the average differences in self-reported home values are ten percent lower than the comparison group. After reflecting on these findings and my decision to volunteer for the Marines in 1989, I find some encouraging news in the number of veterans who own a home without a mortgage and conclude that the average difference in home values would not have changed my decision to volunteer. However, throughout the project, I learned more about troubling social trends about trust in US institutions and recruiting challenges. I am concerned that these social trends—not differences in future homeownership wealth—may be the most menacing problem the US all-volunteer force has faced.