Housing careers, housing pathways and young people in developed economies

The housing careers of young people provide significant insight into the housing system they enter – its opportunities and limitations. There is a strong history of work in housing studies to understand the progress of individuals through the housing market. This paper assesses the value of housing careers and housing pathways as analytical devices at a time when uncertainty marks young people’s movement through the housing markets of developed economies. This paper considers the movement of young people as they progress through the housing system from the family home in twenty first Century homeowner societies. Younger people’s pathways are shown to have slowed, often not end in homeownership, and are not simple linear progressions towards homeownership. Movement through the market is now more dependent on factors external to the housing system. While the concept of a housing career remains relevant, questions of unequal housing outcomes need to be addressed from a wider perspective, one that acknowledges generational schisms as well as the differences between individuals even in one generation.