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AbstractSuccessive waves of house price appreciation have prompted homeowners to tap into housing wealth, increasing mortgage debt to meet spending needs. This paper addresses three questions about equity borrowing behaviour via panel-data modelling. First, how do homeowners’ asset and debt portfolios affect equity borrowing behaviour? Second, is equity borrowing influenced by financial behaviours relating to saving, planning and risk-taking? Third, do equity borrowing drivers vary by age? Our findings confirm that equity borrowing is generally influenced by asset and debt portfolios, with notable age-related differences. Younger homeowners exhibit greater sensitivity to changes in primary home value and debt, and risk willingness. Income, labour force status and ownership of other property are crucial for those aged 55–64, while homeowners aged 65+ are generally insensitive to asset, debt or income changes. We discuss policy implications, emphasizing the prospects of longer working lives among pre-retirees, the need for safeguards for elderly equity-borrowers, and the welfare consequences of later-life debt burdens or homeownership loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of homeownership on subjective well-being and how it varies by location, age and income in Australia. We apply panel data models with instrumental variables within a two-stage modelling framework and find that homeownership, particularly outright ownership, positively affects subjective well-being – as measured by life, financial, home and neighbourhood satisfaction – relative to renting. However, these effects are not homogeneous. Outright owners in major urban locations enjoy higher financial satisfaction but poorer neighbourhood satisfaction than their counterparts outside major urban locations. The subjective well-being gap between owners and renters widens as age increases within the age range of 30s to 60s. However, the presence of mortgage debt depresses the financial satisfaction associated with homeownership. Beyond age 50, the existence of a mortgage debt burden cancels any positive financial satisfaction effects that homeownership has relative to renting. As income increases, the positive effects of homeownership on subjective well-being diminishes in the domain of financial satisfaction This reflects greater diversification in high-income households' asset portfolios compared to low-income households' portfolios. We discuss the policy implications of these heterogeneous effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the links between place attachment and older persons' preferences to age in place, and factors that disrupt these preferences. We use data from the 2001–2021 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and panel-data modelling to confirm strong associations between several place attachment dimensions and aging-in-place preferences. Strong ties to children, strong social capital, residence in social housing, homeownership status, housing wealth, and home and neighborhood satisfaction are all positively linked to a stronger preference to age in place. Our findings reveal important differences between older homeowners and older non-owners. For owners, closeness to children is a strong predictor of aging-in-place preferences, although mortgage debt can trigger involuntary moves. For non-owners, tenure security achieved through longer durations at one's address of residence is linked to stronger aging-in-place preferences. However, private renters are more often exposed to involuntary moves. We discuss the policy implications of these disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of demand-side rental subsidy programmes have argued that they enhance consumer choice while costing less than supply-side interventions. However, unanswered questions remain on the effectiveness of demand-side rental subsidies in reducing affordability stress among low-income renters. This paper analyses Australia's Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) as a case study for evaluating the effectiveness of housing allowance interventions. Our evaluation exemplifies some important policy principles. First, we demonstrate that a multi-pronged package can simultaneously improve adequacy and targeting on those in greatest housing stress, while maintaining revenue neutrality. Second, whether CRA is designed as an income-oriented or housing-oriented subsidy can affect its effectiveness in improving rental affordability. Third, country-specific institutional contexts cannot be ignored. In Australia, constitutional amendments may be required if CRA is to be paid as a stand-alone housing payment rather than as a supplement to other social security payments. Furthermore, given the role of CRA in the esoteric funding structure of social housing, reforms to payment structure must incorporate meaningful measures to avoid unintended damaging consequences in this arena. Finally, any implementation of reforms should be embedded within a strong housing logic that aims to reduce affordability stress rather than as part of a fiscal cost reduction exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the links between forced housing mobility and the mental wellbeing of Australians in an era of heightened risks in both labour and housing markets. Specifically, we examine how the links between forced housing mobility and mental wellbeing may vary according to states of employment and housing tenure insecurity. Using the 2001–2018 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we implement hybrid models across four mental wellbeing dimensions and uncover three key findings. First, there is strong evidence that forced moves impair mental wellbeing. Second, the adverse wellbeing impacts of forced moves are greater for those experiencing employment insecurity than those in secure employment. Third, forced moves can depress the wellbeing of both owner purchasers and private renters, but the wellbeing penalty is greater in the case of the former. Overall, our analysis emphasises the importance of harnessing housing as a policy instrument for promoting wellbeing. Our findings also highlight the need for policies that mitigate loss of home ownership and reforms that improve tenure security for renters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that the home ownership status of parents matters for the likelihood of a child becoming an owner, and other research has studied how financial intergenerational transfers affect the transition to ownership. We extend these existing studies by estimating the effect of financial transfers on the probability of becoming an owner as well as the role of in‐kind transfers. We also analyse how the impacts of different intergenerational transmission channels vary across neighbourhoods of advantage and disadvantage and discuss the implications for inequality in access to ownership. Drawing on a large panel data set from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we offer three new findings. First, we show that financial transfers made concurrently with home purchases play a more important role than lagged transfers and that in‐kind transfers are also an important part of the process of gaining ownership. Second, we note that in‐kind transfers are more effective for raising home ownership prospects in areas with high socioeconomic status, while financial transfers appear to be more effective in middle‐class neighbourhoods. Third, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are least likely to be assisted into home ownership by intergenerational transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we ask how well Australian households are matched to their neighbourhood social environments. We broadly replicate a previous study of matching and ask to what extent households live in communities that are similar in socio-economic status to their characteristics. And, when households move, do they relocate in such a way as to increase similarity to their neighbours? The processes are at the heart of understanding the urban structure, how it changes over time and the links to urban inequality. The article uses data on household incomes from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamic (HILDA) Survey to measure the degree of similarity between households and their neighbours. We study the variation in matching for the population as a whole, and by quintiles of median neighbourhood income. We also measure how individuals that change neighbourhoods increase their similarity to the destination neighbourhood. We find that with respect to matching there is considerable diversity in the levels of matching; and that with respect to residential change, households in general do not make major shifts to increase matching when we control for housing tenure and other household characteristics. There is a need for further replications to understand the nature of matching and the outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the extent to which residential relocation within and between tenure types is associated with changes in mental health. We focus on four types of housing transition - rent-to-own, own-to-rent, own-to-own, and rent-to-rent - using Australian and UK panel data sets from 2001 to 2017. In both countries, transitions into homeownership and moves away from the mortgaged edges toward the unburdened mainstream of outright ownership are positively associated with mental health. On the other hand, shifts by mortgagors towards more precarious positions on the edges of ownership precipitate dips in mental health when there is exposure to high levels of payment and investment risks. Clearly, residential moves can both alleviate and introduce different kinds of risks that affect affordability. Moreover, tenure transitions have impacts on mental health beyond the impacts of payment and investment risks. However, we observe some cross-national differences in findings. In Australia, loss of homeownership has a negative impact on mental health that outweighs the mental health impacts of attaining ownership. In the UK, these findings are reversed. Acute housing affordability problems following moves in Australia, but not in the UK, are a significant driver of mental health outcomes. These differences have institutional explanations., Competing Interests: None., (© 2022 The Authors.)