The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the determinants of becoming a first-time home owner through an analysis of event history data. The data, originally in the form of family and residential histories since household formation, were transformed into a yearly longitudinal form of record for each household's life and referred as marriage-year segments. The households who started with rental tenure were selected up to the first-time move to an owned dwelling or up to the time of the interview. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The Morris and Winter housing adjustment theory was used as a theoretical framework and supported by the results. Every rental household who had not made the transition to first-time home ownership was assumed to continue its process of housing adjustment until home ownership was achieved. First-time home ownership was most often obtained simultaneously with becoming a resident in a single-family dwelling. First-time home buyers often increased the number of bedrooms when they move. It took a shorter time period to buy a first home than in past years.