Types of Elderly Residential Mobility and Their Determinants

Using data from the 1983 Annual Housing Survey, we identified four reasons for moving, which corresponded to changes in later life and which were much more frequently mentioned by movers aged 55 and older than by younger movers. These included moves made for reasons of amenity, kinship, retirement, or widowhood. The rates at which elderly persons engaged in these different types of mobility varied with age, household composition, and other characteristics. Amenity and retirement moves most often ended in destinations in the South and the West, whereas kinship and widowhood moves occurred in all regions, but were more common among those moving to nonmetropolitan than to metropolitan areas.