The rapid growth of car ownership in China in recent years has not only led to significant transformations of residents' daily activities patterns, but caused various social problems such as traffic congestion and air pollution. As a result, change in household car ownership draws increasing attentions in studies on car ownership in China. These studies have shown that economic development, car market, location in the city and neighbor types all have important impacts on car ownership. However, most of them adopt the aggregate approach and not many apply the disaggregate approach to study car ownership based on households. To fill in this gap, this paper examines the major determinants of household car ownership from a micro perspective. Specifically, we study the influence of both household socioeconomics and neighborhood built environment characteristics on household car ownership in China. Data was collected in a survey conducted in Beijing from November 2011 to July 2012. A multi-level probability proportion to size (PPS) sampling strategy was adopted and 467 household heads successfully participated in this survey. The empirical results in the logistic regression model indicate that the household car ownership in China is determined by both affordability-related and demand-oriented factors. Specifically, those households with higher income,more members with driving license and an older and better educated household head are more likely to own a car; living at a longer distance to metro station also increases the probability of owning a car. The more intensive car usage in commuting for those households owning cars implies that they care more about instrumental travel demands rather than the symbolic and affective motives.