Adjusting Housing Consumption: Improve or Move

Abstract

Home improvement is becoming more important as a supplier of housing in Australia. This paper examines how and why home improving decisions are made and briefly discusses some equity questions about the upsurge in home improvement activity. Additions and alterations to dwellings are undertaken largely to meet demands for more and better housing rather than to make good features of the dwelling which have become defective as a result of ageing and wear and tear. Mainly because of the high financial and psychological costs of moving, many homeowners tend to stay in the same house for a long time and modify it as their housing demands change over their life cycle. With upwardly mobile households not moving from their existing dwellings and the values of these dwellings being increased through home improvement, the lower income households are likely to be more disadvantaged.

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