Inflation, New Homeowners and Downgrading in the 1970s

This paper uses data from four successive Annual Housing Surveys, 1974 to 1977, to assess the degree to which households moving from rented to owner occupied housing responded to housing price inflation by purchasing smaller, more delapidated units in less choice locations. The data indicate that, while the size of the structures acquired by new homeowners declined, the quality of these structures and the surrounding neighborhoods did not change. Regression analyses suggest that the prospective homeowners' deteriorating economic position had a significant effect on the size of the homes which they purchased.