Performance of Social Inequalities in the Housing Market: Meanings of Mortgages and Intergenerational Financial Transfers.

Abstract

Social and economic inequalities generated on housing market concerns a range of actors, from those affected (households) to those who are supposed to deal with them (e. g. governments or municipalities). In this paper, I explore the mechanism of how apparently morally valuable practice of intergenerational financial support may contribute to reproduction of these inequalities.

Firstly, I analyse the meanings of mortgages and intergenerational transfers for 49 first-time home buyers and compare their justifications and applied moral orders to the accounts of 10 of their parents. Furthermore, I present the typology of motivations and strategies used by these actors in order to deal with their ultimate goal - acquiring homeownership - while staying away from perceived danger of over-indebtedness.

I show that the inequalities generated on the housing market are the result of buyers' preference of informal debt and obligation (i. e. family loans and gifts), which favours certain groups of buyers. The importance of intergenerational financial transfers has been proved statistically by regression modeling, however the cultural and moral legitimation of resulting practice is under-researched.

Adding the perspective of both generations I enrich the perspective on debt, loan and gifts in the housing context and broader our understanding of various kind of inequalities generated on housing market.