The Timing of Household Events and Housing Events in the Netherlands: A Longitudinal Perspective

Research on the relationship between household events and housing events so far has largely ignored the role of timing. This study aims to uncover in what way the postponement of marriage and childbirth that took place in the second half of the 20th century in the Netherlands affected the timing of moving into 'long-stay housing' (single-family dwellings and owner occupied dwellings). This is done by analysing time lags between household events and housing events. Survival analysis shows that over cohorts, moving into long-stay housing happens consistently earlier, and increasingly frequently before first childbirth. This finding is most likely attributable to the increased economic prosperity and increased availability of long-stay housing. This allows young people to adjust their housing to the household situation they anticipate, rather than to wait until they actually experience the household event. However, this does not hold for single home leavers: they move into long-stay housing neither earlier, nor much more often over time. It is concluded that the level of commitment in the household situation is the fundamental explanation for housing choice, and that economic prosperity mainly facilitates advancement in the timing of adapting the housing situation to the (anticipated) household situation.     

Age differentiation in the effect of household situation on first-time homeownership

To become a homeowner, it is necessary tohave sufficient resources and stability in thehousehold situation. In existing studies,household type is often used as a proxy forlevel of stability. Household types with a highlevel of commitment (married couples withoutand with children) are regarded as stablehouseholds, and singles and cohabitors as lessstable households. In this paper, it is arguedthat stability can be reached not only bymaking a commitment, but also by growing older.Increasing age brings stability into the livesof singles and cohabitors. Age also matters forthe structure of resources and costs ofdifferent household types. From a combinationof theory on age and theory on homeownership inthe life course, five hypotheses are derived.They are tested on retrospective data by usingdiscrete-time event-history analysis. From amodel with interaction effects, it can be seenwhether the probability of becoming a homeownerdiffers between household types in differentage groups. The results show that marriedcouples have the highest probability ofbecoming homeowners in age group 18–24, whereasthe probability is highest for cohabitors inage group 25–29, and in age group 30–34 forsingles. This supports the idea that peoplebecome homeowners either when they make acommitment, or when stability is createdthrough the passage of time in a lesscommitting household type.     

Right to buy … time to move? investigating the moving behaviour of right to buy owners in the UK

Part of the political argument in favour of the right to buy (RTB) was that it would stimulate the economy by encouraging the inter-regional mobility of those in public sector housing. This is the first study to examine whether RTB-owners are indeed more mobile than those in social housing. Using longitudinal data from the British household panel survey and panel regression models we show that the probability of a RTB-owner making a long distance move falls between that of social renters and owner occupiers. However, the difference between RTB-owners and homeowners or social renters is not significant. Social renters are significantly less likely to move over long distances than traditional owners. The results also suggest that RTB-owners are less likely than traditional owners to move for job related reasons, but more likely than social renters.