Do long-distance moves discourage homeownership? Evidence from England

Sejeong Ha, Christian Hilber and Olivier Schöni

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

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.

Keywords: residential mobility; distance of residential relocation; information cost; ownership risk; homeownership; tenure choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 R21 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Housing Economics, 1, September, 2021, 53. ISSN: 1051-1377

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108928/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Do long-distance moves discourage homeownership? Evidence from England (2021)
Working Paper: Do Long Distance Moves Discourage Homeownership? Evidence from England (2013)
Working Paper: Do long distance moves discourage homeownership? evidence from England (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:108928

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