The Housing Decisions of Young People

The early adult years are a time when housing decisions of crucial importance are taken. Preliminary analysis of the housing careers of a sample of newly-married couples shows that despite some overlap of age, income and occupational status, owner-occupiers and council tenants develop as groups with contrasting social characteristics, partly as a response to structural factors within the housing market. A second investigation, concerning young adults who had grown up on a local authority estate, shows a * . * . slml ar c Wlvergence appearlng. The implications of this polarization for the class structure are briefly discussed, and the direction of further analysis indicated.