Winners And Losers: Home Ownership In Modern Britain

Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Title......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of Figures......Page 9
List of Tables......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Abbreviations......Page 14
The Booms of the 1970s and 1980s......Page 15
The 1990s Slump......Page 19
The Recovery......Page 22
Key Arguments of the Book......Page 26
Introduction......Page 31
The Evolution of the UK Home Ownership Market from the 1950s to 1989......Page 37
The 1989–95 Slump......Page 46
Arrears and Repossessions as Indicators of the Severity of the Slump......Page 51
The Impact of the Slump on the Mortgage Lending InstitutionsThe surge in mortgage arrears and repossessions did not just hit borrowers: it also had an impact on the mortgage lenders, who faced a significant rise in bad debts. The five largest mortgage lenders, the Halifax, Nationwide, Woolwich and Leeds Permanent Building Societies and the Abbey National which converted from a building society to a bank in 1989, experienced a dramatic worsening in provisions for bad debts and write-offs between 1......Page 53
The Estate Agency Débâcle......Page 56
The Recovery of the Housing Market......Page 58
What Triggered the Booms?......Page 60
Appendix A: Problems of Measuring Price Changes......Page 63
Introduction......Page 65
Government Policy Support for Home Ownership......Page 66
The Changing Social Base of Home Ownership......Page 70
Home Ownership and Social Class: The Changing Relationship......Page 71
Who Owns What?......Page 75
Home Ownership, Race and Gender......Page 78
Home Ownership, Accumulation and Class Formation......Page 79
Home Owners and Political Alignment......Page 82
CHAPTER 4  Winners and Losers:......Page 88
The Calculation of Gains and Losses......Page 91
Distribution of National Gains and Losses: The British Household Panel Survey......Page 93
The Distribution of Gains and Losses in South East England......Page 96
The Determinants of Gains and Losses in the South East......Page 99
The Distribution of Gains and Losses by Socio-Economic Group and Income......Page 101
Gains by Estimated Current Value and Household Income......Page 105
Variation in Gains by Date of Purchase......Page 107
The Importance of Area and Current House Type......Page 108
The Relative Importance of Social Class, Purchase Date and other Variables in the Determination of Mean Gains......Page 110
The Relative Importance of Different Influences on Determination of Gains......Page 112
Conclusions......Page 115
Home Owners’ Equity and Housing Wealth in Britain......Page 117
Home Ownership and the Reduction of Wealth Inequality......Page 119
The Distribution of Housing within Personal Wealth Holdings......Page 122
The BHPS Data on Housing Wealth......Page 123
Distribution of Current House Values among Home Owners......Page 124
Distribution of Housing Wealth among Outright and Mortgaged Owners......Page 125
Variations in Mean Home Owners’ Equity......Page 126
Mean Equity among Outright and Mortgaged Owners......Page 129
Home Owners’ Equity in South East England: The MORI Survey......Page 130
The Growth and Importance of Negative Equity in the 1990s......Page 131
CHAPTER 6  Housing Inheritance and Equity Extraction from Home Ownership......Page 138
Housing Inheritance in Britain......Page 139
Measuring Housing Inheritance: The Inland Revenue Statistics......Page 141
A Nation of Inheritors? Who Inherits House Property......Page 145
Explaining the Shortfall in the Scale of Housing Inheritance......Page 146
Equity Extraction......Page 149
Measuring the Scale of Equity Extraction......Page 153
Housing: Investment or Consumption Good?......Page 160
Motives for House Purchase in the South East......Page 165
Housing Careers and Strategies......Page 167
Snakes and Ladders in the British Home Ownership Market......Page 168
Housing Ladders in Five Areas of South Eastern England......Page 171
 The Number of Homes Owned by Occupational Class and Income......Page 176
Direct Measure of Movement up the Housing Ladder......Page 177
Conclusions......Page 180
CHAPTER 8  Home Ownership, Housing Wealth and the British Economy......Page 182
Housing Wealth and Consumer Spending as a Cause of the 1980s Boom......Page 183
The Home Ownership Market as a Cause of the Recession?......Page 185
Home Ownership and the Wider Economy: An Assessment......Page 187
Housing Wealth and Consumer Spending: The Contrary View......Page 189
The Role of Financial Deregulation in Promoting the 1980s Boom and Bust......Page 193
The Housing Market and the Economy: A Problem caused by the South East?......Page 195
CHAPTER 9  The Future of the Home Ownership Market in Britain......Page 198
Demographic Change......Page 200
The Erosion of Confidence in the Stability of the Home Ownership Market......Page 205
Forces for Instability......Page 206
References......Page 213
Index......Page 230