TY  - JOUR
AU  - Blank,Rebecca M.
AU  - Rosen,Harvey S.
TI  - Recent Trends in Housing Conditions Among the Urban Poor
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 2886
PY  - 1989
Y2  - March 1989
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2886
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2886.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Rebecca M. Blank
Under Secretary for Economic Affairs
Department of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 4848
1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20230
Tel: 202-482-3727
Fax: 202-482-0432
E-Mail: rblank@doc.gov

Harvey S. Rosen
Department of Economics
Fisher Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
Tel: 609/258-4022
Fax: 609/258-6419
E-Mail: HSR@princeton.edu
AB  - In this paper we examine the trends in housing conditions among the urban poor over the last decade, relate these trends to the economic environments of the cities, and compare the poor to other income groups. We find that there has been a substantial decrease in "housing independence" -- among the poor, the percentage of family heads who live with their parents has risen, and the percentage of family heads who are also household heads has fallen. In addition, the incidence of homeownership among the poor has decreased, and the incidence of multiple-family-unit households has increased. These same trends also show up among higher-income families, although they are typically smaller in magnitude. This paper provides little evidence for the popular hypothesis that changes in housing attributes over the last decade are predominantly related to changes in housing markets. Including a variety of economic variables does little to explain the trends in housing circumstances of different income groups.
ER  -