Though the connection between retirees and employment rates may not be obvious, older adult housing arrangements show signs of increased insecurity under the strain of higher regional unemployment.
In nearly half of the largest 100 US metro areas, the income needed to afford a home last year isn’t enough to afford one this year, shutting out low-income prospective homebuyers.
In the 17 months since the pandemic began, US home prices have increased by 22.5%,the fastest increase since record-keeping began. What does this mean for the country?
Joint Center for Housing Studies
of Harvard University
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies helps leaders in government, business, and the civic sectors make decisions that effectively address the needs of cities and communities.
Older adult homeowners increasingly carry mortgage debt into retirement. The share of homeowners aged 65 and older with outstanding mortgages doubled between 1989 and 2016, while the outstanding loan to value ratio tripled from 13 to 39 percent over the same period. As part of a broader research agenda exploring links between mortgage debt, older adult welfare and equity, this research identifies changes in out-of-pocket health care spending around the time of mortgage payoff.
The pandemic’s financial consequences have been disproportionately borne by the nation’s renters, who have been more likely to report lost income due to the pandemic and to miss housing payments as a result. These missed rental payments also have implications for the nation’s landlords, but much less is known about how they have fared and how they have responded to this significant shortfall in rent collections.
This working paper describes the results of a survey of landlords in ten cities across the US. From February to April 2021, the authors asked rental property owners to assess the financial health of their pre- and post-COVID rental business. They also asked landlords about the tools they have relied on to manage their rental properties during these two time periods.
