‘Are pastures greener?’ Residential consequences of migration

Residential consequences of migration are important factors influencing households' future moving decisions. Intra‐urban mobility may result in better housing and neighbourhoods for households because such moves are usually motivated by housing adjustment. The same may be true of interregional migration because relocation provides an opportunity for housing improvements. The empirical analysis based on data from the American Housing Survey (AHS) shows that over half of intra‐urban movers and close to half of interregional migrants ended up in more desirable housing following a move, and a smaller but still substantial proportion of the movers in each group also resided in a better neighbourhood. Most of the movers were successful in improving both their housing and neighbourhood. But ‘greener pastures’ are far from being a given. Large proportions of both intra‐urban and interregional migrants failed to improve their residential conditions and many fared worse. Changes in housing and household statuses, particularly tenure shift, appear to be the most salient variable affecting households' judgement on their new residential conditions relative to their previous residence. Changes in geographical surroundings had significant effects on residential outcomes of intra‐urban mobility whereby the general preference for a suburban environment is borne out, but they did not seem to matter to interregional migrants. Most socioeconomic variables did not affect residential outcomes either, over and above their influence on tenure shift.