IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/8yuwv_v2.html

Households’ regional housing affordability strain and mental health: insights from the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Troost, Agata Anita
  • van Duijn, Mark

Abstract

Housing affordability pressures are increasingly recognised as a key determinant of mental well-being, yet existing research largely focuses on individual or household-level cost burdens, omitting the spatial context. This paper argues that housing market pressures are subject to regional market dynamics, shaping mental health in addition to individual housing affordability stress. We examine how regional housing affordability strain is associated with mental health in the Netherlands by combining LISS Panel survey data with geo-coded administrative data from Statistics Netherlands. We use a novel rank-based measure of regional price-income mismatch to capture the relative position of households within regional housing markets. Regression results show that regional housing market pressure is negatively associated with mental health in 2023, although no comparable association is found in 2018. The 2023 relationship persists after controlling for individual characteristics and household-level affordability stress. These findings suggest that the mental health consequences of the housing crisis extend beyond individual cost burdens, highlighting the importance of regional housing market dynamics as an independent source of stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Troost, Agata Anita & van Duijn, Mark, 2026. "Households’ regional housing affordability strain and mental health: insights from the Netherlands," SocArXiv 8yuwv_v2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:8yuwv_v2
    DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/8yuwv_v2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/6a62702da3c52577df3deb85/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31235/osf.io/8yuwv_v2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rowan Arundel & Ang Li & Emma Baker & Rebecca Bentley, 2024. "Housing unaffordability and mental health: dynamics across age and tenure," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 44-74, January.
    2. Visser, Kirsten & Bolt, Gideon & Finkenauer, Catrin & Jonker, Merel & Weinberg, Dominic & Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M., 2021. "Neighbourhood deprivation effects on young people's mental health and well-being: A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    3. Rowan Arundel & Christian Lennartz, 2020. "Housing market dualization: linking insider–outsider divides in employment and housing outcomes," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8), pages 1390-1414, September.
    4. Rebecca J. Bentley & David Pevalin & Emma Baker & Kate Mason & Aaron Reeves & Andrew Beer, 2016. "Housing affordability, tenure and mental health in Australia and the United Kingdom: a comparative panel analysis," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 208-222, March.
    5. Ben-Shahar, Danny & Gabriel, Stuart & Golan, Roni, 2019. "Housing affordability and inequality:A consumption-adjusted approach," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Steijn, Mathieu P.A. & Koster, Hans R.A. & Van Oort, Frank G., 2022. "The dynamics of industry agglomeration: Evidence from 44 years of coagglomeration patterns," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. devin michelle bunten & Benjamin Preis & Shifrah Aron-Dine, 2024. "Re-measuring gentrification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(1), pages 20-39, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Min Zhou & Wei Guo, 2023. "Self-rated Health and Objective Health Status Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China: A Healthy Housing Perspective," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-24, February.
    2. Ludlow, Timothy & Fooken, Jonas & Rose, Christiern & Tang, Kam Ki, 2025. "Housing insecurity, financial hardship and mental health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Simon, Curtis J., 2025. "Complexity and colocation of the college-educated: Sort of complements," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    4. Jianglai Dai & Yingying Li & Xuetao Li, 2025. "Spatial Spillover Effect of Green Industrial Agglomeration on Carbon Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Huang, Yang & Xiong, Ni & Liu, Chengkun, 2025. "Smart city policies and corporate renewable energy technology innovation: Insights from patent text and machine learning," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Jean-Sauveur Ay & Thibault Le Corre, 2026. "The social stratification of homeowners’ housing wealth: Bringing a dynamic approach through the price gap index," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 53(1), pages 180-197, January.
    7. Zihan Kan & Mei-Po Kwan & Mee Kam Ng & Hendrik Tieben, 2022. "The Impacts of Housing Characteristics and Built-Environment Features on Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Dean R. Lillard, 2021. "Cross‐National Research: Realised and Potential Contributions," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 542-553, December.
    9. Bo Kyong Seo & In Hyee Hwang & Yi Sun & Juan Chen, 2022. "Homeownership, Depression, and Life Satisfaction in China: The Gender and Urban-Rural Disparities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-13, November.
    10. Henderson, J. Vernon & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2024. "Urban and spatial economics after 50 years," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Timothy Ludlow & Jonas Fooken & Christiern Rose & Kam Tang, 2022. "Incorporating Financial Hardship in Measuring the Mental Health Impact of Housing Stress," Papers 2205.01255, arXiv.org.
    12. Phuong Thu Nguyen & Preety Srivastava & Longfeng Ye & Jonathan Boymal, 2022. "Housing and occupant health: Findings from Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1297-1321, December.
    13. Raquel Ribeiro & Daniela Sofia Neto & Ana Cordeiro Santos & Joaquim Pires Valentim, 2025. "From home to asset: shifting housing social representations and practices in Portugal," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Schetter, Ulrich & Diodato, Dario & Protzer, Eric & Neffke, Frank & Hausmann, Ricardo, 2024. "From Products to Capabilities: Constructing a Genotypic Product Space," CEPR Discussion Papers 19369, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    15. S'andor Juh'asz & Zolt'an Elekes & Vir'ag Ily'es & Frank Neffke, 2024. "Colocation of skill related suppliers -- Revisiting coagglomeration using firm-to-firm network data," Papers 2405.07071, arXiv.org.
    16. Chen, Ziyu & Zhang, Xiaohu & van der Wouden, Frank, 2026. "Neighborhood clusters and citywide technological diversification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    17. Brons, Mathilde E. & Helbich, Marco & Elgar, Frank J. & Lenzi, Michela & Bolt, Gideon & Dierckens, Maxim & Cosma, Alina & Visser, Kirsten & Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M., 2024. "School socioeconomic status and psychological complaints among adolescents in 44 countries: The mediating role of schoolwork pressure and classmate support and the moderating role of family SES and country-level income inequality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 354(C).
    18. Amber Howard & Ang Li & Rebecca Bentley, 2023. "Parental co-residence and young adults’ mental health," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, November.
    19. Xiaowen Wang & Nishang Tian & Shuting Wang, 2022. "The Impact of Information and Communication Technology Industrial Co-Agglomeration on Carbon Productivity with the Background of the Digital Economy: Empirical Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Emma Baker & Andrew Beer & Laurence Lester & David Pevalin & Christine Whitehead & Rebecca Bentley, 2017. "Is Housing a Health Insult?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, May.

    More about this item

    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:osf:socarx:8yuwv_v2. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://socarxiv.org .

    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.