IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/108928.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do long-distance moves discourage homeownership? Evidence from England

Author

Listed:
  • Ha, Sejeong
  • Hilber, Christian A. L.
  • Schöni, Olivier

Abstract

We hypothesize that as the distance of a residential move increases, the amount and quality of information collected on the destination housing market fall. This in turn increases the chances of making an ill-informed housing purchase decision, thus reducing the likelihood of such a purchase. Using data from the Survey of English Housing from 1993 to 2008, we document that, consistent with our prior, households moving over long distances – defined as 50 miles or more – have, on average, a 5.5 percentage point lower probability of owning their next home compared to shorter-distance movers. We also provide evidence consistent with the views that long-distance movers (i) are aware that they possess less and/or lower quality information and (ii) are more likely, especially if they are renters, to move again quickly after presumably having accrued better information on the property and local area.

Suggested Citation

  • Ha, Sejeong & Hilber, Christian A. L. & Schöni, Olivier, 2021. "Do long-distance moves discourage homeownership? Evidence from England," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108928, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:108928
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108928/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gyourko, Joseph & Linneman, Peter, 1996. "Analysis of the Changing Influences on Traditional Households' Ownership Patterns," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 318-341, May.
    2. Eilbott, Peter & Binkowski, Edward S., 1985. "The determinants of SMSA homeownership rates," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 293-304, May.
    3. Hilber, Christian A.L., 2005. "Neighborhood externality risk and the homeownership status of properties," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 213-241, March.
    4. Coulson, N. Edward & Dalton, Maurice, 2010. "Temporal and ethnic decompositions of homeownership rates: Synthetic cohorts across five censuses," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 155-166, September.
    5. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2017. "Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-73.
    6. Lyytikäinen, Teemu & Hilber, Christian A. L., 2013. "Housing transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labour market?," Working Papers 47, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Fu, Yuming, 1991. "A Model of Housing Tenure Choice: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 381-383, March.
    8. William Clark & Youqin Huang, 2004. "Linking Migration and Mobility: Individual and Contextual Effects in Housing Markets in the UK," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 617-628.
    9. Christian A. L. Hilber & Wouter Vermeulen, 2016. "The Impact of Supply Constraints on House Prices in England," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(591), pages 358-405, March.
    10. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    11. Michael Amior & Jonathan Halket, 2014. "Do households use home‐ownership to insure themselves? Evidence across U.S. cities," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 5(3), pages 631-674, November.
    12. Andreas Fuster & Basit Zafar, 2016. "To Buy or Not to Buy: Consumer Constraints in the Housing Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 636-640, May.
    13. Haurin, Donald R. & Gill, H. Leroy, 1987. "Effects of income variability on the demand for owner-occupied housing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 136-150, September.
    14. Brueckner, Jan K, 1997. "Consumption and Investment Motives and the Portfolio Choices of Homeowners," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 159-180, October.
    15. Haurin, Donald R. & Gill, H. Leroy, 2002. "The Impact of Transaction Costs and the Expected Length of Stay on Homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 563-584, May.
    16. Peter Linneman & Susan Wachter, 1989. "The Impacts of Borrowing Constraints on Homeownership," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 17(4), pages 389-402, December.
    17. Diaz-Serrano, Luis, 2005. "Labor income uncertainty, skewness and homeownership: A panel data study for Germany and Spain," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 156-176, July.
    18. Todd Sinai & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2005. "Owner-Occupied Housing as a Hedge Against Rent Risk," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 763-789.
    19. Coulson, N. Edward, 1999. "Why Are Hispanic- and Asian-American Homeownership Rates So Low?: Immigration and Other Factors," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 209-227, March.
    20. Tracy M. Turner & Daigyo Seo, 2007. "Investment Risk And The Transition Into Homeownership," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 229-253, May.
    21. Christian A. L. Hilber & Tracy M. Turner, 2014. "The Mortgage Interest Deduction and its Impact on Homeownership Decisions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 618-637, October.
    22. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Liu, Yingchun, 2008. "Explaining the black-white homeownership gap: The role of own wealth, parental externalities and locational preferences," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 152-174, June.
    23. Rosen, Harvey S & Rosen, Kenneth T & Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 1984. "Housing Tenure, Uncertainty, and Taxation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 405-416, August.
    24. Davidoff, Thomas, 2006. "Labor income, housing prices, and homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 209-235, March.
    25. Dietz, Robert D. & Haurin, Donald R., 2003. "The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 401-450, November.
    26. Ortalo-Magne, Francois & Rady, Sven, 2002. "Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 266-279, September.
    27. Fama, Eugene F., 1980. "Banking in the theory of finance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 39-57, January.
    28. Christian A. L. Hilber & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2012. "The Effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on Household Mobility," SERC Discussion Papers 0115, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    29. Kain, John F & Quigley, John Michael, 1972. "Housing Market Discrimination, Homeownership, and Savings Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 263-277, June.
    30. Pablo Kurlat & Johannes Stroebel, 2015. "Testing for Information Asymmetries in Real Estate Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(8), pages 2429-2461.
    31. Rosen, Harvey S., 1979. "Housing decisions and the U.S. income tax : An econometric analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, February.
    32. Tracy M. Turner, 2003. "Does Investment Risk Affect the Housing Decisions of Families?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(4), pages 675-691, October.
    33. Donald R. Haurin & Hazel A. Morrow‐Jones, 2006. "The impact of real Estate Market knowledge on tenure choice: A comparison of black and white households," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 625-653, January.
    34. Todd Sinai & Nicholas Souleles, 2013. "Can Owning a Home Hedge the Risk of Moving?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 282-312, May.
    35. DaVanzo, Julie, 1983. "Repeat Migration in the United States: Who Moves Back and Who Moves On?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 552-559, November.
    36. Keith Ihlanfeldt & Tom Mayock, 2012. "Information, Search, and House Prices: Revisited," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 90-115, January.
    37. Robst, John & Deitz, Richard & McGoldrick, KimMarie, 1999. "Income variability, uncertainty and housing tenure choice1," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 219-229, March.
    38. Henderson, J Vernon & Ioannides, Yannis M, 1983. "A Model of Housing Tenure Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 98-113, March.
    39. Uri Simonsohn & George Loewenstein, 2006. "Mistake #37: The Effect of Previously Encountered Prices on Current Housing Demand," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(508), pages 175-199, January.
    40. Gyourko, Joseph & Linneman, Peter & Wachter, Susan, 1999. "Analyzing the Relationships among Race, Wealth, and Home Ownership in America," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 63-89, June.
    41. Boehm, Thomas P. & Schlottmann, Alan M., 1999. "Does Home Ownership by Parents Have an Economic Impact on Their Children?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 217-232, September.
    42. Painter, Gary & Gabriel, Stuart & Myers, Dowell, 2001. "Race, Immigrant Status, and Housing Tenure Choice," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 150-167, January.
    43. Alex Chinco & Christopher Mayer, 2016. "Misinformed Speculators and Mispricing in the Housing Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 486-522.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mangum, Kyle & Molloy, Raven, 2021. "Migration and Housing special issue: Introduction from Editors Kyle Mangum and Raven Molloy," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    2. Cheshire, Paul & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Koster, Hans R.A., 2018. "Empty homes, longer commutes: The unintended consequences of more restrictive local planning," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 126-151.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Liu, Yingchun, 2008. "Explaining the black-white homeownership gap: The role of own wealth, parental externalities and locational preferences," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 152-174, June.
    2. Hilber, Christian A.L., 2005. "Neighborhood externality risk and the homeownership status of properties," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 213-241, March.
    3. Tracy M. Turner & Marc T. Smith, 2009. "Exits From Homeownership: The Effects Of Race, Ethnicity, And Income," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 1-32, February.
    4. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2014. "Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5048, CESifo.
    6. Durba Chakrabarty & Michael J. Osei & John V. Winters & Danyang Zhao, 2019. "Which immigrant and minority homeownership rates are gaining ground in the US?," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 43(2), pages 273-297, April.
    7. Chakrabarty, Durba & Osei, Michael J. & Winters, John V. & Zhao, Danyang, 2017. "Are Immigrant and Minority Homeownership Rates Gaining Ground in the US?," IZA Discussion Papers 10852, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2012. "Homeownerhip and Entrepreneurship," SERC Discussion Papers 0103, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Philippe Bracke & Christian Hilber & Olmo Silva, 2012. "Homeownerhip and Entrepreneurship," SERC Discussion Papers 0103, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Henrik Cronqvist & Florian Münkel & Stephan Siegel, 2014. "Genetics, Homeownership, and Home Location Choice," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 79-111, January.
    11. Mangum, Kyle & Molloy, Raven, 2021. "Migration and Housing special issue: Introduction from Editors Kyle Mangum and Raven Molloy," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    12. Bracke, Philippe & Hilber, Christian A.L. & Silva, Olmo, 2018. "Mortgage debt and entrepreneurship," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 52-66.
    13. Prashant Das & N. Edward Coulson & Alan Ziobrowski, 2019. "Caste, Faith, Gender: Determinants of Homeownership in Urban India," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 27-55, July.
    14. Fan, Gang-Zhi & Pu, Ming & Deng, Xiaoying & Ong, Seow Eng, 2018. "Optimal portfolio choices and the determination of housing rents under housing market uncertainty," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 200-217.
    15. Baiyi Wu & Wenlong Bian & Ying Xue & Hao Zhang, 2021. "Confucian Culture and Homeownership: Evidence from Chinese Families," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 182-202, March.
    16. Laurent Gobillon & Matthieu Solignac, 2020. "Homeownership of immigrants in France: selection effects related to international migration flows [A nation of immigrants: assimilation and economic outcomes in the age of mass migration]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 355-396.
    17. Turner, Tracy M. & Luea, Heather, 2009. "Homeownership, wealth accumulation and income status," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 104-114, June.
    18. Gathergood, John, 2011. "Unemployment risk, house price risk and the transition into home ownership in the United Kingdom," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 200-209, September.
    19. Isaac F. Megbolugbe & Peter D. Linneman, 1993. "Home Ownership," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(4-5), pages 659-682, May.
    20. François Ortalo-Magné & Andrea Prat, 2016. "Spatial Asset Pricing: A First Step," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 130-171, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    residential mobility; distance of residential relocation; information cost; ownership risk; homeownership; tenure choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:108928. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.