Multigenerational Class Gradients in Housing Tenure Trajectories in Young Adulthood

Qian He , University of Wisconsin-Madison

Prior research shows that parental socioeconomic background positively predicts young adults’ transitions to first-time homeownership. Yet it remains unclear whether and how the processes of residential transitions to adulthood differ by one’s multigenerational class backgrounds. This paper employs a four-generation framework to examine the patterns and determinants of housing careers in young adulthood for a British birth cohort. Sequence analysis of housing tenure trajectories identifies diverse housing trajectories in young adulthood, which differ by types of home-leaving, durations of rental housing, the chances of, as well as the routes of homeownership acquisition. These diverging housing trajectories represent another dimension of socioeconomic inequalities, with significant implications for housing quality and wealth formation later in adulthood. While multigenerational class gradients are largely mediated by one’s childhood housing environments for the majority of housing trajectories, they remain much more persistent for the most and least privileged trajectories.

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 Presented in Session 221. Housing, Homelessness, and Child/Youth Well-being