Housing Payments Research Articles

Improving Housing Payment Projections during the COVID-19 Pandemic

<ns3:p>COVID-19 caused widespread job loss, raising concerns about whether people can still cover their rent or mortgage expenses. Policymakers and researchers are working to understand the effects of the pandemic on housing payments and predict future payment rates.</ns3:p>

Плата за жилье и коммунальные услуги: особенности охраны прав потребителей

Плата за жилье и коммунальные услуги: особенности охраны прав потребителей

ОЦЕНКА СОВРЕМЕННОГО СОСТОЯНИЯ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ЭКСПЛУАТАЦИЕЙ ЖИЛИЩНОГО ФОНДА

The housing stock is the most important national treasure, all Russian society and government bodies are interested in its growth and preservation. The very sphere associated with the management of the operation of the housing stock is constantly developing and requires improvement at all levels of management. The managing organization, as an executor of housing and communal services, is the basic link between consumers and contractors of these services, as well as providers of communal resources. Bearing responsibility to citizens for the uninterrupted and high-quality provision of housing and communal services, the managing organization constitutes the economic core of the entire economy. Therefore, an assessment of the current state of management of the operation of the housing stock will make it possible to develop directions for improving the activities of managing organizations, which will help to increase the efficiency of their activities and the level of quality of services provided for managing the operation of the housing stock. In the article, the author’s attention is drawn to the dynamics of indicators of the housing stock and its components in the Russian Federation. The features of the housing stock as a management object are presented. The analysis of: financial indicators of the activities of enterprises for managing the operation of the housing stock in Russia (balanced financial result; profitability of works, services; return on assets; autonomy ratio; ratio of own circulating assets; current liquidity ratio); indicators for payment for services provided by enterprises for managing the operation of the housing stock (accrued housing payments to the population; actually paid by the population for housing payments; actual level of housing payments by the population; arrears of the population for housing payments); indicators of debt on financial obligations of enterprises carrying out activities for the management of the operation of the housing stock. Highlighted the problems that the owners of the housing stock in the event of arrears in payment for services.

Forms of fettering: application forms and the exercise of discretion in the welfare state

ABSTRACT Application forms are often the compulsory interface between citizens and their social rights. Applicants for support must navigate the questions, checklists and blank spaces in often long, detailed documents to assert their social entitlements. Given their ubiquity and the central role they play in the administration of the welfare state, it is perhaps surprising that they have been neglected in favour of a focus on other documentation, principally policy and guidance. This paper argues that the non-fettering ground of review – a principle whose jurisprudence is tied to the design and use of policy – also engages application forms. Through an analysis of 271 application forms used to administer the localised Discretionary Housing Payment scheme in England, three examples of their fettering potential are provided: the imposition of exhaustive criteria; requiring the applicant to self-classify or disclose irrelevant considerations; and constraining responses through tied evidential requirements. By arguing that the non-fettering ground should not limit itself to one kind of document (policy) when administrators are so reliant on another (application forms), the paper’s broader agenda is to argue that principles of good administration should apply to all documentation used to administer social entitlement.

Public rental housing ownership conversion based on housing affordability in China

ABSTRACTAccording to the regulations of the Chinese government, tenants of public rental housing (PRH) can purchase their dwellings after a certain amount of time. However, since different regulations are enforced by individual local governments and the Chinese government’s policies regarding sale prices are incomplete, it is difficult to determine appropriate sale prices. In order to cope with this challenge, we suggest a hybrid framework introducing residual income approach and inverse distance weight (IDW) interpolation method to determine the sale price. Variables considered to develop the framework are housing payment ability, neighborhood house’s price, and distance from nearby residential buildings. To validate the proposed framework, the sale price of PRH in Chongqing is determined and then evaluated using cost–benefit analysis. The analysis results show that the model can present a reasonable sale price given that the net benefit is more than 0 when the sale price is 557 USD/m2.

Property/Home Preservation and Real Estate Management Rapid Growth in USA

This paper bases on the fact there are poor living conditions in the USA in 2019, an age where the Real Estate industry is booming and how the Property/Home preservation companies can improve these conditions to support the growth of the Real Estate industry. USA states are experiencing new and existing home sales increase by 4.3% and 2.5% (Fig 2), respectively (at seasonally-adjusted annual rate). However, identified are individual testimonies of how bad the living conditions in different states in the country are. These counts range from young people just starting out to senior citizens trying to age gracefully in their homes. 38 percent of households statewide live in unaffordable housing, spending more than 30 percent of their income on monthly housing payments and utilities hence completely ignore preservation of the properties. The paper then goes on to show how the failure to preserve properties/homes is affecting the Real Estate Industry. This failure impacts the Real estate industry because when property is not preserved well, it leads to an increase in levels of waste that keep growing year in year out from poor disposal of garbage. This failure to preserve the properties in good conditions is leading to air, water and soil pollution further still the paper goes on to show how this affects the Real Estate industry in terms of value and losses. Recommendation is then given to show how Real Estate owners can use the services of Property/Home preservation companies to keep their properties in good shape and in the long run raise the value of their properties to soaring heights. Property/home preservation helps promote and sustain mixed income communities by ensuring the ongoing availability of quality, affordable properties. Property preservation companies also help recycle waste that could have otherwise caused soil deterioration and air pollution which degrade the value of Real Estate properties.

Measuring Financial Wellbeing with Self-Reported and Bank-Record Data

This study develops multi-item scales of the financial wellbeing of customers of a major Australian bank using self-reported survey data that are matched with the customers' financial records. Using Item Response Theory (IRT) models, the study develops: First a Reported Financial Wellbeing Scale that is formed from responses to 10 questions about people's experiences and perceptions of financial outcomes, and second an Observed Financial Wellbeing Scale that is formed from five financial-record measures of customers' account balances, net spending, and payment problems. The IRT models show that each scale reliably differentiates between a wide range of outcomes and that the components within each scale have similar power to discriminate. We validate the scales by estimating Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator machine-learning models of how they correlate with other measurable characteristics. Savings habits, spending habits, credit card behavior, household income, education, difficulties with housing payments, and the use of and access to social or government support are each associated with both types of financial wellbeing.

Forms of Fettering: Application Forms and the Exercise of Discretion in the Welfare State

Application forms are often the compulsory interface between citizens and their social rights. Applicants for support must navigate the questions, checklists and blank spaces in often long, detailed documents to assert their social entitlements. Given their ubiquity and the central role they play in the administration of the welfare state, it is perhaps surprising that they have been neglected in favour of a focus on other documentation, principally policy and guidance. This paper argues that the non-fettering ground of review – a principle whose jurisprudence is tied to the design and use of policy – also engages application forms. Through an analysis of 271 application forms used to administer the localised Discretionary Housing Payment scheme in England, three examples of their fettering potential are provided: the imposition of exhaustive criteria; requiring the applicant to self-classify or disclose irrelevant considerations; and constraining responses through tied evidential requirements. By arguing that the non-fettering ground should not limit itself to one kind of document (policy) when administrators are so reliant on another (application forms), the paper’s broader agenda is to argue that principles of good administration should apply to all documentation used to administer social entitlement.

The Dynamic Importance of Property/Home Preservation Companies on the Environment in USA

This paper bases on the per-existing poor living conditions in the USA. Identified are personal counts of how badly people are living are, these counts range from young people just starting out to senior citizens trying to age gracefully in their homes. 38 percent of households statewide live in un affordable housing, spending more than 30 percent of their income on monthly housing payments and utilities hence completely ignore preservation of the properties. The paper then goes on to show how the failure to preserve properties/homes is affecting the environment. This destroys the environment with high levels of waste that keep growing year in year out from poor disposal of garbage leading to air, water and soil pollution. Recommendation is then made to provide a solution to this strain on the environment which is the use property/home preservation companies to save the environment and prevent further damage (the fast track to global warming). Property/home preservation helps promote and sustain mixed income communities by ensuring the ongoing availability of quality, affordable properties. This helps people save more money to live environmentally friendly lives and reduces pollution with in the country. Property preservation companies also help recycle waste that could have otherwise caused soil deterioration and air pollution (Environmental hazards).

A new look at the housing antecedents of separation

BACKGROUND: Research connecting partnership dissolution to housing dynamics usually concentrates on the adverse and gendered effects of separation on housing careers. Much less is known about whether housing circumstances are also influential antecedents of separation. OBJECTIVES: This paper examines how three dimensions of housing circumstances are associated with separation: (1) legal arrangements of housing tenure and gendered housing contracts; (2) the lived environment (space) within dwellings; and (3) couples’ ability to meet housing payments. METHODS: This theoretical framework is tested using event history probit models of separation among a large sample of couples drawn from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). RESULTS: The results show that all three dimensions of housing circumstances are associated with separation. Crucially, mortgage or rent arrears strongly increase the risk of partnership dissolution, especially among married couples who otherwise typically have a low propensity to separate. The risk of partnership dissolution is greater for renters than homeowners and greater female control over housing predicts separation, with partnership dissolution more likely when only the woman is 2 written into the dwelling contract as compared to when both partners or only the man hold contractual rights. CONTRIBUTION: These results suggest that growing difficulties obtaining secure and affordable housing could have negative consequences for partnership stability. We therefore call for researchers to engage more thoroughly with housing as a potential driver of demographic change.

Interest-only-mortgages and housing market fluctuations in Denmark

Low repayment rates on mortgages have probably contributed to increased macroeconomic imbalances for several countries in recent years. The objective of this paper is to analyze how the introduction of interest-only-mortgages in 2003 affected the Danish housing market. Using quarterly data between 2001 and 2013, we analyze the long- and short-run relationships between mortgage repayments and three dependent variables: real house prices; the number of property sales; and mortgage debts in relation to disposable income. We find that including mortgage repayments in nominal housing payments improves the econometric fit when predicting house prices and mortgages in relation to disposable incomes in both the long run and the short run, but not when modeling sales. Also, the conventional user cost variable either turn out insignificant or with the “wrong” (i.e. positive) sign, while nominal housing payment, including mortgage repayments, are significantly negative. However, some regression results are sensitive to specification and there are some indications of reversed causality issues. We therefore perform complementary event studies. The results of the event studies suggest that real house prices and the mortgage debt ratio increased considerably faster than otherwise expected between the introduction of interest-only-mortgages and the start of the financial crisis in 2007. Results are similar when using the results from our long- and short-run regressions to simulate the effects of introducing interest-only-mortgages. Our most conservative estimates suggest that the introduction of interest-only-mortgages raised real house prices and the mortgage debt ratio by about twenty and ten percent between 2003 and 2013, respectively. Our results raise questions of whether households base their decisions on real or nominal variables, actual costs, or cash flows, and if interest-only-mortgages have promoted housing affordability or have rather contributed to increased house prices and household debts.

Discretion as blame avoidance: passing the buck to local authorities in ‘welfare reform’

This paper argues that central governments can avoid blame for cuts to social security by giving local authorities discretionary powers. When making reductions to entitlements, conferring discretion avoids delineating who is affected, allowing for conflicts in policy formation to be deliberately fudged, decisions to be shielded from the gaze of the public and the courts, and responsibility for the impact of budget reductions to be externalised. Using three ‘welfare reforms’ in the UK as examples – the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, Discretionary Housing Payments, and local welfare assistance schemes – four ‘blame avoidance’ functions of conferring discretion are proposed.

The impact of economic downturns and budget cuts on homelessness claim rates across 323 local authorities in England, 2004-12.

Background It is unclear why rates of homelessness claims in England have risen since 2010. We used variations in rates across local authorities to test the impact of economic downturns and budget cuts. Methods Using cross-area fixed effects models of data from 323 UK local authorities between 2004 and 2012, we evaluated associations of changes in statutory homelessness rates with economic activity (Gross Value Added per capita), unemployment, and local and central government expenditure. Results Each 10% fall in economic activity was associated with an increase of 0.45 homelessness claims per 1000 households (95% CI: 0.10–0.80). Increasing rates of homelessness were also strongly linked with government reductions in welfare spending. Disaggregating types of welfare expenditure, we found that strongest associations with reduced homelessness claims were spending on social care, housing services, discretionary housing payments and income support for older persons. Conclusions Recession and austerity measures are associated with significant increases in rates of homelessness assistance. These findings likely understate the full burden of homelessness as they only capture those who seek aid. Future research is needed to investigate what is happening to vulnerable groups who may not obtain assistance, including those with mental health problems and rough sleepers.

Housing Expenditures, Purchase and Rental of Residential Properties in Russiaas Regions

Over the past two years, the cost of housing and community amenities has been growing at a moderate rate. Due to financial problems, one in every ten households delayed paying its bills, or paid them only in part. The volume of housing and community amenities payments in arrears remained the same as in the previous years. The monthly rent cost of a one-room apartment, which in 2010–2015 had been equivalent to half of an average wage, in Q1 2017 fell to 40% of an average wage.

Faster payments systems gaining speed in the USA: Expanding scope of services

The USA has been playing ‘catch-up’ when it comes to establishing accelerated payment systems — but the wheels are beginning to turn faster. The recent introduction of same-day automated clearing house (ACH) payments was a start, but other federal government-led initiatives are also underway, setting the foundation for even faster and more efficient real-time electronic payment capabilities. For example, the Federal Reserve’s Payment Task Force has enumerated both goals and effectiveness criteria for any new real-time payment solutions. At the same time, efforts at creating real-time payments in the USA are also being influenced by regulatory standards, such as those established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In one of the most watched developments, The Clearing House’s realtime payments (RTP) platform is scheduled to go live with consumer bill payments and business-tobusiness payments pilots in the first half of 2017. Such developments hold great promise for business users, including improvements in both cash management and supply chain management.

تصور مقترح لإشباع احتياجات الأسر الفقيرة دراسة مطبقة على الأخصائيات والأخصائيين الاجتماعيين في مکاتب الضمان الاجتماعي في مدينة الرياض

(تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تحديد احتياجات الأسر الفقيرة (الاقتصادية والاجتماعية) المستفيدة من خدمات الضمان الاجتماعي في مدينة الرياض والوصول إلى مقترحات لإشباع تلک الاحتياجات وهي دراسة وصفية استخدمت منهج المسح الاجتماعي الشامل للأخصائيين والأخصائيات في مکاتب الضمان الاجتماعي , وتوصلت الدراسة إلى عدة نتائج من أهمها: أن أهم الأساليب المتبعة لدراسة الاحتياجات هي الزيارات , وأن أهم الاحتياجات الاقتصادية للأسر الفقيرة هي الحصول على الإعانات المادية , وتوفير المواد الغذائية , وتسديد فواتير الخدمات , وتوفير المستلزمات المدرسية, وسداد ايجار السکن , أما الاحتياجات الاجتماعية فترکزت على توفير الاحتياجات المدرسية والخدمات الصحية , وکانت أهم المقترحات لإشباع تلک الاحتياجات هي : تفعيل مشروعات الأسر المنتجة , فتح مراکز التدريب للشباب والفتيات و نادي اجتماعي لشغل وقت الفراغ, تنفيذ برامج توعية لتنظيم الميزانية , ترشيد الاستهلاک , إنشاء دور للحضانة). This study aims to identify the needs of poor families (economically and socially) who beneficiated from social security services in Riyadh and imagine a proposal that satisfy those needs. A comprehensive social survey for specialists in social security offices has been used in this descriptive study. The study reached several conclusions including; that the most important methods used to study the needs are visits. Also, that the most important economic needs of poor families are to get the physical benefits, providing food, paying utility bills, the provision of school supplies and rent housing payment . While social needs were focusing on the provision of school needs and health services. Thus, the most distinguished proposals to satisfy those needs were; activating the productive families’ projects, establish training centers for young adults of both genders and social club to fill free time, implement education to organize the budget, decrease consumption and establish nurseries.

Evaluating an Outcomes‐based Standardized Homeownership Education Program

A statewide education program provided prospective homebuyers with information to support long‐term preservation of affordable homeownership. Between 2012 and 2015, a sample of 1,561 Michigan residents completed pre‐ and post program evaluation surveys. The surveys measured 12 outcomes of the homeownership education program. Change scores were calculated for participants, and paired t‐tests were used to compare pre‐ and postsurvey means for each of the 12 outcome measures. The results of both change scores and t‐tests showed that homeownership education increased the participants’ knowledge of financial requirements for buying a home and practices to prevent predatory lending and foreclosure. The financial practices in which the largest percentage of participants reported an intention to change were as follows: tracking spending, creating a budget, calculating a reasonable housing payment, identifying patterns to adjust, and developing a plan to change financial habits.

The impact of economic downturns and budget cuts on homelessness claim rates across 323 local authorities in England, 2004-12.

BackgroundIt is unclear why rates of homelessness claims in England have risen since 2010. We used variations in rates across local authorities to test the impact of economic downturns and budget cuts.MethodsUsing cross-area fixed effects models of data from 323 UK local authorities between 2004 and 2012, we evaluated associations of changes in statutory homelessness rates with economic activity (Gross Value Added per capita), unemployment, and local and central government expenditure.ResultsEach 10% fall in economic activity was associated with an increase of 0.45 homelessness claims per 1000 households (95% CI: 0.10–0.80). Increasing rates of homelessness were also strongly linked with government reductions in welfare spending. Disaggregating types of welfare expenditure, we found that strongest associations with reduced homelessness claims were spending on social care, housing services, discretionary housing payments and income support for older persons.ConclusionsRecession and austerity measures are associated with significant increases in rates of homelessness assistance. These findings likely understate the full burden of homelessness as they only capture those who seek aid. Future research is needed to investigate what is happening to vulnerable groups who may not obtain assistance, including those with mental health problems and rough sleepers.

The impact of housing payment problems on health status during economic recession: A comparative analysis of longitudinal EU SILC data of 27 European states, 2008–2010

Although the recent Great Recession had its origins in the housing sector, the short-term health impact of the housing crisis is not well understood. We used longitudinal data to evaluate the impact of housing payment problems on health status among home-owners and renters in 27 European states. Multi-level and fixed-effects models were applied to a retrospective cohort drawn from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey of employed persons, comprising those without housing arrears in the base year 2008 and followed through to 2010 (n=45,457 persons, 136,371 person-years). Multi-variate models tested the impact of transitioning into housing payment arrears on self-reported health (0-worst to 4-best), adjusting for confounders including age, sex, baseline health, and individual fixed effects. Transitioning into housing arrears was associated with a significant deterioration in the health of renters (−0.09 units, 95% CI −0.05 to −0.13), but not owners (0.00, 95% CI −0.05 to 0.06), after adjusting for individual fixed effects. This effect was independent of and greater than the impact of job loss for the full sample (−0.05, 95% CI −0.002 to −0.09). The magnitude of this association varied across countries; the largest adverse associations were observed for renters in Belgium, Austria, and Italy. There was no observed protective association of differing categories of social protection or of the housing regulatory structure for renters. Women aged 30 and over who rented appeared to have worse self-reported health when transitioning into arrears than other groups. Renters also fared worse in those countries where house prices were escalating. We therefore find that housing payment problems are a significant risk factor for worse-self reported health in persons who are renting their homes. Future research is needed to understand potential sources of health resilience among renters, especially at a time when housing prices are rising in many European states.

The impact of the housing crisis on self-reported health in Europe: multilevel longitudinal modelling of 27 EU countries

Background: Many EU nations experienced a significant housing crisis during the Great Recession of 2008–10. We evaluated the consequences of housing payment problems for people’s self-reported overall health. Methods: We used longitudinal data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey covering 27 countries from 2008 to 2010 to follow a baseline sample of persons who did not have housing debt and who were employed (45 457 persons, 136 371 person–years). Multivariate linear regression and multilevel models were used to evaluate the impact of transitions into housing arrears on self-reported health, correcting for the presence of chronic illness, health limitations, and other potential socio-demographic confounders. Results: Persons who transitioned into housing arrears experienced a significant deterioration in self-reported overall health by − 0.03 U (95% CI − 0.01 to − 0.04), even after correcting for chronic illness, disposable income and employment status, and individual fixed effects. This association was independent and similar in magnitude to that for job loss (−0.02, 95% CI: −0.01 to − 0.04). We also found that the impact of housing arrears was significantly worse among renters, corresponding to a mean 0.11 unit additional drop in health as compared with owner-occupiers. These adverse associations were only evident in persons below the 75th percentile of disposable income. Discussion: Our analysis demonstrates that persons who suffer housing arrears experience increased risk of worsening self-reported health, especially among those who rent. Future research is needed to understand the role of alternative housing support systems and available strategies for preventing the health consequences of housing insecurity.