Abstract: Over the past forty years， China’s housing market reforms have rapidly reshaped urban spatial structures and deepened social-spatial differentiation. Simultaneously， the homeownership rate in China has risen dramatically. Against the backdrop of high homeownership rate and the increasingly significant spatial polarization of the housing market， the differentiation of owner-occupied housing location has become a key lens for understanding housing inequality. This study emphasizes the significance of residential location， focusing on residents in Shanghai as a case study. By integrating Points of Interest（POI） data with questionnaire surveys， we explore the degree of advantages， the factors influencing the property location of first-time buyers， and especially the influence of family background， a factor that is often overlooked in previous research. The findings reveal a distinct spatial gradient in locational advantage， which declines from the city center toward the periphery at a gradually diminishing rate. The distribution of locational advantage among first-time homeowners in Shanghai follows an inverted U-shape， with lower values at both extremes and higher values in the middle. The model results show that residents， whose parents are of higher education levels and superior economic status， and work in the public sector， are more likely to be located in an advantageous location. However， parental homeownership seems to impede their children from gaining homeownership at a more advantageous location because the younger generation tends to trade better locations for “newer and bigger” homes further away. The study also finds that the inhibitory effect of parental homeownership exacerbates if parents work in public sectors. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of intergenerational support in housing location differentiation， providing a crucial perspective for understanding social stratification.

Key words: first-time homeownership, location advantage, family of origin, intergenerational transmission, POI data