Parental background and housing outcomes in young adulthood

Abstract

Scholars and policy-makers are concerned that young adults' housing opportunities are becoming more dependent on their family background. This could hinder social mobility and exacerbate inequality. Using data from three cohorts of young people drawn from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study of England and Wales, this study examines how parental attributes in childhood are linked to young adults' housing outcomes two decades later. The results show that young adults' housing outcomes have changed considerably over time and are persistently stratified by parental class and tenure in ways that vary by gender. Housing outcomes have become somewhat more polarised by parental tenure over time as the children of renters became relatively less likely to enter homeownership and more likely to rent privately. This suggests that renters became an increasingly 'marginalised minority' in the late twentieth century, with consequences for their children's housing careers and future social inequality.

Social Disparities in Private Renting Amongst Young Families in England and Wales, 2001-2011

“…This restriction allows controls to be included for spatial mobility between censuses and parental attributes measured when LSMs were aged 5-14. Prior LS research shows that these are important factors in young adults' housing careers as migrants often rely on the PRS, while parental occupational advantage and homeownership increase the odds that young people enter owner-occupation (Coulter 2016). As a result of this additional restriction, the population of interest shifts subtly for the modelling work to encompass only those young adults in families in 2001 and 2011 who have also been residents in England and Wales for three consecutive censuses.…”

“…This threatens to exacerbate well-documented inequalities in young Britons' housing careers by more deeply stratifying their trajectories and experiences by class position and family background (Coulter 2016). Lennartz and colleagues (2015) show that these issues have international resonance as young people in many European countries are finding it harder to enter homeownership.…”

Intergenerational transmission of housing choice: The relevance of green spaces for moving into a family house across social class

“…A positive influence was found for higher education (Mulder & Wagner, ) but not so in a newer study for Germany (Bayrakdar et al, ), occupational prestige (Mulder & Wagner, ), employment or occupational status (Enström Öst, ; Kurz, ; Lersch & Luijkx, ), and income (Bayrakdar et al, ; Enström Öst, ), whereas not being in employment (Coulter, ; Mulder & Wagner, ) or being unemployed (Bayrakdar et al, ; Kurz, ) were found to decrease the likelihood of moving to a self‐owned home. Moreover, living with a partner or spouse was found to increase the likelihood of becoming a homeowner (Coulter, ; Enström Öst, ). Migration background was found to be negatively related to homeownership in some countries but not in others (Coulter, ); for Germany, no influence was found (Bayrakdar et al, ).…”

“…Parental homeownership was found to accelerate young adults' entry into homeownership in various contexts (Bayrakdar et al, 2018;Coulter, 2018;Kurz, 2004b;Lersch & Luijkx, 2015;Mulder, Dewilde, van Duijn, & Smits, 2015;Mulder & Wagner, 1998), whereas other parental characteristics like education (Mulder & Wagner, 1998), single parenthood or step-parenthood, and number of siblings (Bayrakdar et al, 2018;Lersch & Luijkx, 2015) were barely influential.…”

“…Parental homeownership was found to accelerate young adults' entry into homeownership in various contexts (Bayrakdar et al, ; Coulter, ; Kurz, ; Lersch & Luijkx, ; Mulder, Dewilde, van Duijn, & Smits, ; Mulder & Wagner, ), whereas other parental characteristics like education (Mulder & Wagner, ), single parenthood or step‐parenthood, and number of siblings (Bayrakdar et al, ; Lersch & Luijkx, ) were barely influential. There is evidence that the parents of home buyers are involved in an increasing number of property transactions in European countries (Ronald & Lennartz, ) and that the influence of parental tenure on the transition into homeownership has increased (Coulter, ; Kurz, ), especially in expensive housing markets (Mulder et al, ).…”