Growth Of Home Ownership Research Articles

Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals Asset-based Welfare and Housing in Great Britain

The role of housing in providing a welfare asset has been widely explored. With the growth in home ownership between 1979 and 2008 and erosion of the welfare state, housing wealth has become part of the welfare mix in the UK. Here, we present analysis of housing outcomes, as measured in the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), among people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in Great Britain. This shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people have poorer housing outcomes than heterosexual counterparts: they are less likely to be homeowners; more likely to be private renters; and more likely to be social renters. With growing intergenerational inequalities in access to home ownership, we argue that, as openly LGB (and broader trans and queer) people being on average younger than the rest of the population, this could lead to LGB people, as a group, being excluded from asset-based welfare in the future as they age.

Influence of technological factors and homeownership through mortgage financing in Kenya

The uptake of mortgage just like any other business today is being affected by technological factors. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of technological factors on the growth of home ownership through mortgage financing in Nairobi County, Kenya. A descriptive survey of 92 credit managers in 43 mortgage banks and 393 mortgage customers selected from a population 24,000 employees of three parastatals was conducted. Secondary data was collected from published financial statements of CBK, mortgage lenders, and Kenya National Bureau Statistics (KNBS) for the period of 30 years. The study established that technological factors had a statistically significantly influence on the growth of homeownership through mortgage financing in Kenya ( = 0.439, t = 13.412, p <0.05). The study also determined that decisions by mortgage customers are strongly influenced by the rapid changes that new technologies offer. The study concluded that while the technological drivers for change are often perceived as disruptive, they are neither sudden nor random and thus appropriate positioning will help mortgage firms to gain more customers and also continue attracting more clients. The study recommends that the mortgage industry players need to consider the technological factors in the policy making process which can enhance the mortgage uptake in Kenya. The study also recommends that lenders must have a technology that is capable enough to get homebuyers into their dream homes faster, customize engagement with their unique customers, stay in contact throughout the process and respond to homebuyers needs on their terms.

Assetization: The Chinese Path to Housing Financialization

Although the literature on the financialization of housing pays most attention to mortgaged and securitized homeownership and the penetration of capital into subsidized rental housing, forms of financialization are varied. In China, housing commodification and privatization has underpinned a growth in homeownership. One of the outcomes of financialization of housing is the transformation of owner-occupied housing into a financial asset for households’ wealth. Despite a relatively low level of residential mortgage lending in China, both the absolute volume of mortgages and the proportion of gross domestic product they represent are now rising. Housing value appreciation has driven a significant increase in the financing of housing consumption through multiple channels. This article examines these channels and suggests that the financialization of housing in China is a critical part of the country’s overall development model. It is further argued that the root of housing financialization in China is not mortgage securitization but the creation of owner-occupied housing as a financialized asset to propel the wider financialization of the Chinese economy in the context of state-controlled financial environment.

Neighbourhood upgrading: A fragmented global history

This survey reviews the history of, and issues associated with, neighbourhood upgrading, defined as focused, coordinated action whose main purpose is to improve the physical and/or social conditions in particular, relatively disadvantaged urban subareas, for the benefit of existing residents. The survey brings together the fragmented, relevant literatures of historians, social scientists and policy analysts pertaining to both the global North and South. It considers the dimensions of disadvantage, together with the peculiar conditions of urban settings, problems of neighbourhood scale and boundaries, and the targeting of people or places. It reviews why governments act, and why they might prefer upgrading over laissez faire (neglect) or clearance. The longest section, organized historically and by world region, discusses the changing nature and importance of physical as opposed to social goals. It considers the agents involved in upgrading, including municipalities, property owners, other residents, and non-profits, before sketching major shifts over the past century and a half: the eventual shift from physical to social goals, the growing role of residents, and the rising importance of upgrading itself. These are attributed to the long-term expansion of government, the faltering rise of democratic practices, the growth of home ownership, the demise of colonialism, the rise of international agencies, and lately environmental concerns. A concluding discussion highlights issues that researchers and planners need to consider.

The aftermath of the general financial crisis for the ownership society: what happened to low-income homeowners in the US?

The last half of the twentieth century was a period of unprecedented growth in homeownership in the United States and Europe. In the UK and the USA, policy and government actions were focused on increasing homeownership as part of a new ‘ownership society’. This was especially true in the 1990s and 2000s. Now, in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis and the housing market collapse, there is renewed concern with the loss of housing-wealth, affordability and even whether ownership will ever be attainable for low-income and minority populations. This paper examines the rise in home ownership as governments engaged in a policy experiment of greatly expanding ownership. The paper extends the aggregate studies of the housing crisis by examining population cohort behavior during the housing bubble and the individual outcomes as a result of the housing experiment. I use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to evaluate the impacts of the debt burden and negative equity on ownership and conclude that they will have long-term impacts on the ability of low-income and minority households to enter the housing market or even to keep their homes. The policy goal of a broadened ownership society will be difficult to sustain in the light of stagnant incomes and high prices even after the recent decline in house values.

When Sailors Kiss: Picturing Homosexuality in Post‐World War II America

There is an infinity of different ways in which a kiss can be delivered; and its meaning, both to participants and to onlookers, will vary accordingly. It can express deference, obethence, respect, agreement, reverence, adoration, friendliness, affection, tenderness, love, superiority, inferiority, even insult. There is no such thing as a straightforward kiss. (Thomas 188) Alfred Eisenstaedt's V-J Day photograph of a and sailor kissing in New York's Times Square became an overnight sensation when it appeared on the cover of Life magazine in August 1945 (Figure 1). According to first-hand accounts of the celebration, Eisenstaedt's photograph captured the day. As one woman recalled, female was grabbed and kissed by men in uniform, while a who has claimed to be the sailor in Eisenstaedt's photograph thought he must have kissed a thousand women that day (Who is the Kissing Sailor? 72, 68). In the moments leading up to his famous snapshot, Eisenstaedt remembered there was a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, did not make any difference .... Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse (Eisenstaedt 74). Life photographers in a number of other locations, including Hawaii, Kansas City, Washington, DC, and Miami, captured dozens of similar scenes of returning troops, suggesting that the kiss formed a sort of national currency for victory that day. Looking back on an era which would soon become known for its high marriage rates, a baby boom, and a dramatic growth in home ownership, it is also possible to see this kiss as a catalyst for a whole sequence of events which had been delayed in America for decades by economic depression and war. The photograph's iconic status therefore not only has to do with what it depicts, but with the postwar American Dream which follows the kiss. Fast forward more than forty years to the late 1980s when the kiss was reinvented as a form of public protest. In 1988, the artist collective Gran Fury appropriated George H. W Bush's famous campaign slogan, Read my lips: no new taxes, for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power in a poster with a band of boldface text stating Read My Lips across a picture of two uniformed sailors absorbed in a kiss. With this image, Gran Fury not only draws political awareness to a perceived failure by the government to respond to a national healthcare crisis, it cuts to the core of Republican family-values rhetoric by queering the (normally heterosexual) kiss. The poster is based on a World War II photograph, although Gran Fury cropped the original image, eliminating the lower half of the photograph in which the partly disrobed sailors exchange a second, genital kiss (Figure 2). The subject matter of the archival photograph, combined with the fact that it was created during the Second World War, make it an inviting comparison with Eisenstaedt's V-J Day photograph. Together, these images pressure the boundaries which differentiate the heterosexual from the homosexual kiss. Commenting on this distinction, Philip Brian Harper suggests that same-sex kissing potentially functions to reveal a secret, not only about the nature of the relationship between the persons who kiss, but also about the persons themselves. In other words . . . the same-sex kiss speaks to identity in a much more highly charged way than does a kiss between a woman and a man (qtd. in Meyer 230). Questions of identity and the relationship between the sailors become more insistent when the same photograph is reimagined by Michael Miksche in Sailors Kissing, an ink painting on paper from the early 1950s (Figure 3). A former bomber pilot who served in the Air Force during the Second World War, Miksche explicitly references this period of service through his photographic source; interestingly, however, he does so only several years after the fact, as a closeted gay living and working in Cold War America. …

Cohort Trajectories in Hong Kong's Housing System: 1981–2001

A household's progression through a housing system depends not just on the current social, economic and policy context but also on past housing experiences and circumstances. Different birth cohorts, because of their location in a specific socio-economic and policy environment, may have distinct residential trajectories. Five waves of Hong Kong Census data are used to trace tenure change of different birth cohort groups from 1981 to 2001. The paper shows that it was the new and expanding middle class entering the labour market in the early 1980s, which were the most likely to enter, and benefit from a booming private housing market. However, the public homeownership sector, which encompasses schemes whereby the supply and price are controlled by the government, offered more uniform assistance to other birth cohorts. Moreover, this state-assisted sector played a particularly important role in sustaining the growth of homeownership when housing was least unaffordable and also during the recession following the Asian Financial Crisis.

The growth of mass home ownership in Taiwan

With the increasing growth of home ownership inEuropean countries, the issue ofrecommodification of housing is being widelydiscussed. The significant amount ofinternational research focused on housing hasdrawn attention to the changing structure ofthe housing stock and the consequences of suchchange. Research is gradually shifting from apolicy-centred perspective focusing on socialhousing to a wider view of how the housingmarket operates. In line with this trend inhousing research, this paper seeks to explainthe development of housing systems in Taiwanand to show how the high percentage of homeownership is related to the different routes bywhich new homeowners gain access to the sector.With the growing influence of market-basedhousing provision, home ownership depends moreon the deepening involvement of the financialsystem, especially at the lower end of themarket. Along with the changes in the widersocial context – such as the downturn of thehousing market, the wider economic recession,the rising rate of unemployment – the housingsystem that is dominated by mortgaged homeownership is in crisis.

COMMODIFICATION OF HOUSING WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

ABSTRACTIn its attempt to reform the housing system, China has rapidly marketized but not privatized the housing production process and system. In contrast, the consumption of housing is privatized quickly but marketized slowly. Yet, the housing allocation process still largely relies on the old system of heavy subsidization. Nonetheless, housing subsidy has been curtailed and the growth in home ownership and the future pegging of rent and price with household income would dwarf the housing provider role of the government. The commodification process necessitated new government roles since government support in infrastructure and superstructure is essential for the healthy functioning of the newly emerged housing market. Overall, retention of the public ownership of the development companies and the housing financiers differentiate the Chinese housing reform process from those of other market and post‐socialist economies.

Where Credit Is Due: Residential Mortgage Finance in Canada, 1901 to 1954

The experience of Canada in the first half of this century indicates that the importance of institutional mortgage lending for the growth of homeownership can be overstated. Home ownership rates in Canada and the United States were similar, but many fewer Canadians than Americans relied on lending institutions. Fewer incurred debt of any sort. A case study of Hamilton, Ontario, based on land titles records indicates that this was especially true during the interwar years. No Canadians lived in large metropolitan areas, where mortgage debt was most prevalent, while many built in stages as their finances allowed. Moreover, even in the early 1950s, half of all residential mortgage debt in Canada was held by private individuals, with brokers playing an important role. Despite the importance of the personal sector, above all in the markets for older homes and junior mortgages, the Canadian government made no effort to improve the way in which it operated.

Tenements to bungalows: class and the growth of home ownership before ‘World War II’

ABSTRACTWhich social groups were moving into owner occupation in Britain before the Second World War is a matter of controversy, with opposing claims that this involved mainly white-collar or skilled manual workers. Although reliable figures showing the growth of home ownership in this period are rare, data are available for Edinburgh which indicate that tenure development in the city probably resembled that of England and Wales rather than the rest of Scotland. The relationship between income and the cost of home ownership is examined and this suggests that the main social group to move into owner occupation were probably white-collar workers. However, an analysis of occupational information from housing across a range of values in the city shows that this movement also affected manual workers and that there was a strong association between the proportions in each social class and the average rateable value of areas of housing.

Coping Strategies, Housing Careers and Households With Negative Equity

AbstractThe prolonged and pervasive recession in the UK property market has produced significant numbees of households with unsecured housing debt – negative equity. These homeowners are typically recent, first-time buyers and are concentrated in the southern core regions of Britain. Various aggregate estimates exist of the numbers of households with unsecured debt and the amounts of money involved; little is known, however, about individual experiences of negative equity. Here, in-depth interview data are drawn on to explore the different strategies adopted by households in varying social and financial circumstances. Findings are related to more general changes in housing market behaviour and to broader theoretical debates about the growth of home ownership.

Home ownership undermined?

The Finnish home ownership sector, proportionately one of the largest in Europe, experienced a boom in the late 1980s, followed by a slump characterized by falling and static prices, arrears, and reduced transactions. The paper addresses the question of whether this can be regarded as a cyclical downturn, from which the market will eventually return to normality, or as a signal of structural change. The slump is largely due to the restructuring of the labour market that has come to erode the basis of the growth of home ownership. The paper examines the Finnish situation against that in Britain which has undergone similar market trends. It concludes that although there have been similar developments in both countries in moves towards low-inflation economies and reductions in subsidies to home owners-both of which could be interpreted as structural changes-their labour market developments show some differences. In Finland the development of a flexible and casualized labour market has been less vigorous. The paper concludes with a discussion of these developments in terms of crisis embedded in the attempts of governments to protect capital accumulation. It also speculates about the generalizability of the findings to other European countries.

Landlords and housing in depression

Abstract Concentrating on the Great Depression in North American cities, but also drawing comparisons with the lesser depression of the 1890s, and with a different experience of depression in 1930s Great Britain, this paper argues that more attention should be paid to the role of, and problems faced by, private landlords, who still provided the majority of housing in most cities. Following a review of the crisis of housing construction and finance in early 1930s North America, the situations of different kinds of landlord (working class, philanthropic, speculative) are discussed. The overall effect of depression, in reducing levels of home ownership and changing the character of landlordism from investment to speculation, is contrasted with the outcome in Great Britain, where depression was associated with the growth of home ownership.

A home of one's own: Women and domesticity in England 1918–1950

This article investigates working-class women's consciousness of their domestic role at a specific moment in England when that role was in the process of reformulation. Working-class women defined themselves not only in terms of their gender but also in terms of their difference from and antagonism to other social classes. The social relations between women were to a considerable extent constructed and manifested in the system of domestic service; hence, the changing nature and eventual demise of domestic service in the period 1918–1950 were to have far-reaching implications for women's understanding of themselves in relation both to the class system and to women's domestic role. Parallel with the changes in domestic service were growth in home ownership and occupation and the development of a consumer market offering a range of products targeted at the housewife. It was only in the first half of the 20th century that the term ‘housewife’ came to signify an apparently homogenous group of women who could be addressed as having common interests by the media, by politicians, and by the designers and producers of domestic technology, and it is the purpose of this project to explore the ways in which women experienced, adapted, and appropriated the category ‘housewife’ as a means of defining identity in terms of both class and gender in the context of such changes. In the 1920s and 1930s the idea of the housewife was offered as a highly valued and ‘modern’ role for women albeit a conservative one, focusing as it did on women's traditional functions in the family and thereby reproducing the limitations of a single role and self-identity. Yet, as the author argues, such conservatism, reformulated as ‘modern’, offered working-class women possibilities for self-definition which were potentially empowering and democratic in terms of class, if not gender. How far these possibilities could be realised is one of the questions the article attempts to answer.

Housing asset values and the mobility of elderly home owners: Housing research and policy issues

encouraged by governments, and both the forms of subsidies and incentives andthe greater mobility of younger households have meant that the growth in homeownership has been greatest among these households. Furthermore, where thegrowth in home ownership has been associated with unsubsidized speculativebuilding, younger more mobile households are a major market group. Thus the

Divisions of Homeownership: Housing Tenure and Social Change

This paper is concerned with the way in which housing tenure categories are used in analysis of social change in Britain. The tendency to represent tenures as unchanging, homogeneous categories with exclusive attributes is discussed. It is argued that it is important to assess the ways in which dominant housing tenures have been changing and to highlight differentiation within tenures. This discussion is mainly pursued in relation to debates about homeownership. Reference is made to the need to appreciate various elements contributing to the growth of homeownership and various differences between homeowners in terms of accommodation, legal rights, material interest, security, and social class. In conclusion it is argued that polarised presentations of homogeneous tenures are an inadequate basis for discussion and that recognition of key divisions within tenures is important in developing an understanding of the relationship between housing and social change.

Home ownership, foreclosure and compulsory auction in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract This paper outlines the financial difficulties which home owners in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) have been experiencing over the 1980s. The discussion is preceded by a brief outline of the housing market for owner‐occupied dwellings. The paper then outlines the scale of the problem of home owners in financial difficulties and refers to house prices, housing finance and state subsidies. The extent to which the growth of home ownership has brought owner‐occupation within the reach of middle and lower income households, and the particular conditions of the housing market which affect those home owners who run into financial difficulties are considered. Reference is also made to research which has been carried out into the particular plight of households threatened with compulsory auction proceedings. In the conclusion possibilities for reform of housing finance arrangements and compulsory auction proceedings are outlined.

Privatisation of Housing and the Impact of the Conservative Government's Initiatives on Low-Cost Homeownership and Private Renting between 1979 and 1984 in England and Wales: 1. The Privatisation Policies

Since 1979 the main housing policy aim of the Conservative Government in Britain has been to privatise the ownership of housing. The housing programme has included policies to increase the supply and demand for low-cost homeownership and to increase the supply of privated rented housing. The aim of this and three subsequent papers is to describe these programmes and to evaluate their impact. In this, the first paper, it is shown how the Government's attitude to housing differs markedly from that of its predecessors and a description is given of the way the low-cost ownership and private renting programmes fit into the Government's privatisation ideology. The paper continues with a description of each of the initiatives of the low-cost homeownership programme. The next two papers are an examination of the number of sales involved and they draw on published research to evaluate the impact of the sales. It is concluded that, with the exception of the sales of public rented housing, low-cost sales have been limited, but that those who have bought have reaped benefits during a period when other housing and economic policies militated against homeownership. Not all buyers receiving the extra subsidies involved in the programme were in priority social or housing need groups. There is doubt whether the houses involved will be permanently low cost. There is also doubt if the growth of homeownership amongst low-income groups can be unproblematic in relation to their housing and living standards, problems which need state support to be resolved. The fourth paper in the series is an examination of the initiatives in respect of private renting and it is concluded that these, too, had little impact because they were largely irrelevant to the fundamental difficulties facing landlords and tenants. The four papers in this series appear in sequence in successive issues of this journal. Together they show that privatisation policies cannot be achieved without continuing state support and intervention in the form of subsidies and regulation.

Home ownership and socialism in Britain : a bulwark against bolshevism

This paper suggests that the British working class is roughly equally divided between tenants and home owners, and that the growth of home ownership is likely to continue, encouraged as it has been by both Labour and Conservative govern ments. Nevertheless government promotion of relatively insecure low income owner occupation in the inner city has illustrated the limits of such a strategy. Homeownership has not depoliticised the housing question for the working class but has transformed it into a central part of the politics of prices and incomes. Socialist policies which concentrate on the defence ofpresent-day council housing or an even-handed approach to council tenants and homeowners are doomed to favouring the latter. The problems of a more radical reformist approach to the housing question are outlined.