Asset Rich, But Income Poor : Australian Housing Wealth and Retirement in an International Context

This paper examines patterns of housing wealth among the aged in Australia over time and compares Australian housing wealth patterns with those in North America and Western Europe, to determine if the Australian elderly hold particularly high levels of housing wealth, and if this leads to a relative overconsumption of housing. The paper uses data from the three most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Household Expenditure Surveys (1993-94, 1998-99 and 2003-04)